Putney Historical Society

Mission:  To discover and collect materials illustrative of life, conditions, events, and activities of the past and present pertinent to the history of Putney.

Also, we strive to preserve and maintain property which reflects the historic character of Putney. Recently this has included work on Town Hall, the Putney General Store, The United Church of Putney, and assisting the East Putney Community Club with a new roof for Pierce’s Hall.

Summarizing our collective experience in the past year seems impossible. In a sentence, we finished painting the Town Hall entry, prepared to come into ownership of our largest church building, and with strong and complex community support and countless hours of effort, we neared rehabilitation of our longest-running general store in Vermont; poised to reopen in a few months with very reputable, experienced Vermont grocers as proprietors, we gave out candy to Halloween children, and prepared to finish the interior, looking ahead to a grand re-opening, and a settling of our general store affairs—but November 1, at about 10:30 pm, our course was altered, with an unspeakable dagger. An horrific fire devastated what we had done—what our wide Vermont community built together because we loved the building and the business, and we wanted to revitalize Putney’s struggling downtown economy.

We lost an extremely historic Vermont building on this dark day. We have been given to understand the fire was set on purpose. At the time of this writing, we do not know why. This was a severe crime against the community; this fact cannot be overstated. Many of us know, driving by, the regular pang of loss, which can be severe for some, including many of our children. Remember, everyone—there is a large reward for information leading to a conviction.

The response from our community has been outstanding. People deserving thanks include the roughly 140 EMS personnel who saved lives and a great deal of Putney village property that night; the brave people at the vigil the following Friday, sharing a huge circle of candles and songs led by the children; the successful RE:STORE event organized by Eric Bass, with amazing support from many, particularly Julian Browne, Cor Trowbridge of BCTV, Marty Brennan-Sawyer of the Putney School, and Deb Lazar; the contributions of so many from the wide community, including some large and many small amounts—becoming members of PHS, standing with us as we face the difficult prospect of drawing up and rebuilding the heart of our village, and our small business community.

Also, the Preservation Trust of Vermont, and all our board members and task force members, particularly Lyssa Papazian, Susan McMahon, Tom Jamison, and Jeff Shumlin, deserve real thanks for their long effort and endurance.

We have closed on insurance, and look forward to reestablishing as many of our grant prospects as soon as possible.

We have taken over running the busy United Church building, following the kind gift of the church community, which trusts us to continue running this very historic building in a community-centered way. This building also needs considerable work, and we have our hands full with this building alone! We hope that many of you will consider volunteering for us, or becoming involved in our effort in any way that you can.

Now more than ever, we need your help to preserve and restore our town’s history and economy. And with your help, we will continue to pursue what we believe is an impressive service record.

Stuart Strothman, president