Twenty-nine of Mary Kocher paintings of Historical Mauch Chunk decorate the walls of the North Street branch of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company.

In 1985, Mauch Chunk Trust Company Director Harold Queen began collecting Mary Kocher’s paintings. She loves the old buildings in Mauch Chunk,” said Queen. “She’s a wonderful artist. Her paintings while realistic, embody a certain something that a camera can’t capture.”

The tranquil snow blanketed Carbon County Courthouse  was sketched by Mary Kocher in 1988 during the summer and transformed into a timeless seasonal scene. In the background can be scene the Asa Packer Mansion.

Mauch Chunk Trust Company Customer Service Division Manager Kathy Schwick loves Mary Kocher’s painting of the gas station on Susquehanna Street. “Mary takes something as mundane as a gas station  and makes it alive and vibrant,” said Schwick.

Old Mauch Chunk comes alive at the newly renovated North Street offices of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company through a permanent exhibition of Mary Kocher paintings.

“Art is your voice, your sense of rhythm and tone. It is something within your soul. You are born that way. If you can explain it, you lose it.”

         Mary Kocher

 Mary-Kocher

On Saturday Oct. 30,  the Grand Opening of the North Street Branch Office of the Mauch Chunk Trust Company featured tours of a two-level 5,000 square foot addition that included a new formal lobby and expanded office space. The lobby, conference rooms, and every office displays one or more paintings by Palmerton artist Mary Kocher, 83.

 In 1985, Mauch Chunk Trust Company Director Harold Queen began collecting Kocher’s scenes of Mauch Chunk, the Victorian era town that was renamed in 1953 as Jim Thorpe.  He has acquired 29 of her paintings for the bank with three more in his personal collection.

 “She loves the old buildings in Mauch Chunk,” said Queen. “She’s a wonderful artist. Her paintings while realistic, embody a certain something that a camera can’t capture.”

 Queen placed his favorite of Mary Kocher’s paintings in the lobby. It is a view of the Asa and Harry Packer Mansions. “In a photograph, you can’t see the two of them together,” Queen added. “She managed to put them together side by side.”

 Pat Reilly - President and CEO of Mauch Chunk Trust Company was pleased with the number of people who came to tour the bank’s improvements, the first changes since 1987, and to celebrate Mary Kocher’s artwork.

 “She does such beautiful paintings of local scenes. It really enhances the decor of the building,” said Reilly.

 Customer service Division Manager, Kathy Schwick, led tours of the new addition and spoke to visitors about the Mary Kocher paintings as each group passed from room to room.

 With the additional space provided by the expansion, Mauch Chunk Trust found itself with more room to display Kocher’s paintings. “All of our offices have one of Mary’s paintings,” said Schwick. “They are all scenes of the Mauch Chunk area. Some are current, others are scenes from the late 1800s or early 1900s.”

 “We support Mary because she is a local artist and we are a local banking institution—locally owned and operated,” Schwick added. “She depicts scenes in Jim Thorpe, the area where we do our business.”

 Schwick describes Kocher’s artwork as, “Breathtaking! Unique! They are just wonderful. You take a look at her paintings and you picture yourself being back in the time and place where it was painted. They are nostalgic yet contemporary and draw a whole range of positive emotions.”

Becoming an Artist

As a child in 1920s rural Morgantown, West Virginia, Mary Kocher with her four sisters and brother were constantly busy with either with daily chores or with making clothing for the family or rugs for the house.

 At age 22, she began work as a bookkeeper at the University of West Virginia. University. She met and married a chemist while he was working on the atomic bomb program in Oak Ridge Tennessee. Her first child was born there in 1945. After the war, her husband joined the New Jersey Zinc Company and the family moved to Palmerton in 1946.

 After a Palmerton woman introduced her to oil painting, Kocher signed up for art lessons at the Baum Art School in Allentown. “I was one of the first painters at the school,” she said. “I went every Saturday morning. I lived for Saturdays.”

 She honed her craft over six summers at a Rockport, Massachusetts art colony. “It’s where all the famous artists gather in the summertime,” noted Kocher. “The light is glorious.”

 She began a career of painting and teaching. As she has gotten older, she no longer teaches and just paints on commission.

 “Art is your voice, your sense of rhythm and tone. It is something within your soul,” said Kocher. “You are born that way. If you can explain it, you lose it.”

 She loves Victorian Buildings. She will typically sketch the scene and take photographs of the details. Then Kocher returns to her studio where she makes modifications to capture Victorian colors. She sometimes adds people or transportation. Sometimes, she will even change the season. Her Carbon County Courthouse painting was sketched in the summertime and painted as a winter snowscape.