Aug 30, 2016 3 min read

MATHER – It has stood as a landmark in the community of Mather for almost a century and it should continue to stand for many more years once a rehabilitation project is completed later this fall.

“The Liars Den,” a gazebo-like structure, was constructed at Third and Main streets in the community’s town square in 1919, about two years after the town of Mather was founded by the mining company, Pickands, Mather and Co.

“It’s been part of the town for years,” Morgan Township Supervisor Shirl Barnhart said. “But it’s gotten to the point of disrepair; it’s falling apart.”

Several residents of the community have wanted the gazebo to be restored because of its historic significance to the town, he said.

The supervisors are now soliciting bids for the work and expect to award a contract for the project Sept. 14. If the supervisors are able to award a contract on that date, the township will begin immediately to demolish the present structure.

A new Liars Den should be completed within 90 days, possibly before Christmas, Barnhart said.

Mather was founded in 1917 to provide housing for workers at Mather Mine, which operated from 1918 to 1964, according to G. Wayne Smith’s “A History of Greene County Coal Mining.”

The Liars Den was originally built as a place where residents of the town could meet. Men in the community in the early days were said to go there in the evenings to talk and spin their tales, which earned the place its nickname.

“It was a place for the miners to gather,” Barnhart said. “Old coal miners would go up there and tell their mining stories,” he said.

As far as he knows, Barnhart said, the Liars Den has never been rebuilt and still has the original base. The roof was replaced once after the original was damaged in a fire.

The new Liars Den will be as similar as possible to the original. The existing center pole will be salvaged and incorporated in the new structure, he said.

“It will be the same shape,” Barnhart said. “We’re trying to keep it as close to original as possible.”

But changes will also have to be made to meet current building standards, Barnhart said. This includes the addition of a ramp to make the Liars Den accessible to people with disabilities.

In the last few years, the Liars Den has continued to be used as a place to meet but primarily by the youth of the community. Not too many old timers go up there anymore, Barnhart said.

If the reconstruct goes well, however, maybe some of the older residents will return, Barnhart said.

“Maybe they’ll go up there and start lying again,” he said with a chuckle.