-Shorter University-
Photo: Monro B. Lanier III and Martha Shorter Dougherty of Huntsville, Alabama, stand with the Decker Brothers square piano they donated to Shorter University.
A 19th-century square piano once believed to have graced the halls of Thornwood, the historic Rome estate of Shorter University’s founding benefactors Alfred and Martha Baldwin Shorter, has returned home.
The instrument was donated to the University by Monro B. Lanier III and Martha Shorter Dougherty of Huntsville, Alabama, direct descendants of the Shorter family.
The instrument, a rare Decker Brothers square piano manufactured in New York City and patented in 1863, has been installed at Shorter University’s Thornwood campus, where it now serves as both a piece of living history and a tangible connection to the University’s founding legacy.
According to Lanier, the piano has been known within his family for generations simply as “the Shorter piano.” Family oral history traces its origins to Thornwood itself, where Alfred Shorter and his wife Martha, known affectionately within the family as “Aunt Shorter,” made their home. A framed portrait of Martha Baldwin Shorter has accompanied the instrument throughout its travels, always given a place of prominence atop the piano.
The story of how the piano came to the Lanier family is one woven through generations of women who shared the name Martha Shorter. After Colonel and Mrs. Shorter’s deaths, Thornwood passed to their adopted niece, Martha Shorter Harper Hamilton. Her granddaughter, also named Martha Shorter, became Lanier’s grandmother. The naming tradition continued for more than a century, a quiet tribute to the woman who started it all. Lanier’s sister, who co-donated the piano, carries the name still: Martha Shorter Dougherty.
The piano traveled with the family from Rome to a summer cabin in Mentone, Alabama, then to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Montreal, and Birmingham before Lanier moved it to Huntsville. When no family member was able to give it a permanent home, the siblings reached out to Shorter University, hoping the instrument might find its way back to where the family believed it belonged.
The piano itself is a significant artifact. Decker Brothers, whose New York City workshop produced instruments praised by The New York Times in 1878 for their superior quality, ceased operations around the turn of the 20th century. The square piano format, rectangular in shape and roughly 80 inches long, was a hallmark of the Victorian era, and surviving examples in the Decker Brothers tradition are considered by antique experts to be exceptional instruments.
“From its earliest days, Shorter University has been shaped by the faith and generosity of the Shorter family,” said Shorter University President Don Dowless. “To welcome this piano back to Thornwood is a gift that connects us in a very real way to the people whose vision made this University possible. We are deeply grateful to the Shorter family for entrusting it to us.”
“Our family has called it the Shorter piano for as long as any of us can remember,” said donor Monro B. Lanier III. “It has moved with us through the years, from Alabama to Pennsylvania to Canada and back again, but it always felt like something that belonged somewhere larger than a living room. My sister and I are glad its home.”
The piano is now on display at Thornwood and is open to viewing by the campus community and visitors.
