Dartmouth Alumni Magazine

AN idea which revived the hopes and „ prospects of a community as well as the fortunes of Dan McMullen '41 was his inspiration for establishing the Colonialcraft Rug Company, in Waldoboro, Maine. Now in its fifth year, this concern has been instrumental in making the handbraided wool rug acceptable for Chippendale and Sheraton furnishings on Park Avenue, as well as for Connecticut farmhouse maple and pine Colonial.

When Dan McMullen returned from war service, he felt that then, if ever, was the time to break away from a job in which he seemed to be a cog in a large machine. The question was, "What else could he do?" One night, watching his wife Grace braiding a rug, it occurred to him that there might be a good market for 100 per cent handmade, long-lasting rugs; that if his wife couldn't buy what she wanted, there must be others like her.

Today in Waldoboro, which had a prosperous shipbuilding industry until wooden ships were replaced by steel, Mc Mullen has turned a sail loft into work rooms where 2000 pounds of wool a month roll in from New England mills. Between 200 and 300 families are supported by his rug-making enterprise.

Purchasing odds and ends of material, mostly of neutral colors so that they can be dyed the shades required, he and his wife oversee the manufacture of the rugs as well as the selling. A successful manand-wife team, they have braided rugs, been their own foremen, bookkeepers, buyers and sales force, and have travelled from coast to coast. Recently they completed "rugging" the Governor's Mansion in Arkansas. As their business has grown, production has been devoted more and more to custom orders, handled directly with home owners rather than through stores or outlets.

In keeping with their ocean port factory, many of the rugs go to sea. It has been found that, for yachts, braided rugs are in demand, as they will stay in place during heavy seas.