Putney Historical Society

by Barbara Taylor

Chris Hadsel, who worked on the Painted Theater curtains awhile ago, recently announced a Windham County Open House that will take place October 4 & 5 in the towns of Jamaica, Newfane, Grafton, Saxtons River, Westminster, Guilford and Putney, displaying painted curtains from itinerant painters in the early 1900s.  Putney Historical Society will be hosting her painters and displaying our curtains from 10 – 4 on Saturday, October 4.

She arrived at PHS on Monday Sept. 14 to look at the Advertising curtain (she had not been present when they repaired it) and the Town Hall.  The Tree/Leaf panels that were near the stage caught her eye, and she identified them as being painted by a man named Henry who did curtains up and down this valley.  The folks she sent to repair the Advertising curtain really didn’t think these were important enough to work with at the time; Chris found them and the top teasers to be in good shape and needing some additional
TLC.  Come see these beautiful works of art.

Whether you are a historical society member, or simply a concerned citizen, please attend our informational discussion at the Community Center on Sunday, September 21, 2008, at 2 p.m, to learn about our phased plan to save the General Store. This will be our annual meeting, beginning with the introduction of our new slate of officers. We will seek direction from our members on this project, and we encourage contributions from other interested members of the community. Lyssa Papazian, the board’s community liason for this project, will lead the discussion along with president Stuart Strothman, and Paul Bruhn of the Preservation Trust of Vermont. Other members of our task force will be present as well to answer questions. This will be an opportunity for the people of Putney to judge the feasibility of our plans, and to consider contribution of some kind toward our efforts to restore the general merchandise store which has anchored our town center for 165 years. This will be a major event in the history of Putney, and we sincerely hope you will attend. If we are successful, we will restore the town center, and help to stabilize our community’s character and economy.

On Friday, June 8th, 2007, members of the historical society hosted the monthly community supper at the United Church of Putney. Over two hundred people were fed, and a wonderful choral group from Hartford Connecticut came in to sing, prior to their later performance upstairs. On the menu was pasta primavera with a cream sauce and chicken, as well as a lovely tossed salad, and brownies for dessert. As other organizers of the community suppers will attest, it represents quite a bit of teamwork to feed everyone! However, the volunteers did an admirable job, and we would particularly like to thank the dining operation at Landmark College for steaming all our pasta, and lending us chafing trays for use during the supper.