preserving "the best-known small town in America"
Location: Pierce’s Hall, East Putney
Members present: Barbara Taylor, Ruth Barton, Stuart Strothman, Lindley Speers, Laurel Ellis, MaryJane MacGuire, Jane Rawley
Also present: 18 people, including Marilyn Loomis of the East Putney Community Club.
Meeting called to order by Ruth Barton.
By Stuart Strothman and Laurel Ellis, August 2005
Putney has long been rightfully proud of its fire department, which in 2004 responded to a record 343 calls, and gave 4300 additional volunteer hours over to maintenance, education, and training. As we look forward to our new firehouse on the solid ground of the old salt shed property across from the Co-op, it seems like a good time to look back and consider some of the ways our fire department has served our community, and how things have changed over the years.
By Laurel Ellis and Leon Cooper, August, 2005
The history of the Putney Community Center can be said to rightly begin even before the construction of the Baptist Meeting House Church which was to become its home.
The 1883 Meeting House deed indicates that a one-family dwelling house was already standing on the site where the Church was slated to be built. A close examination of the present structure makes a strong case for the rear portion of the building being in fact the dwelling house referred to in the 1883 deed. An exterior-wall window is still visible from the interior stairway leading to the second floor, making it clear that the rear part of the building must have once stood as an independent structure.
By Laurel Ellis, August 23, 2006
In our busy here and now it’s hard to imagine how different everything will be at some unknown time in the future. Today’s minor hardships could even be remembered with a touch of nostalgia for the related memories of simpler and otherwise happy times. Sometimes it’s someone else’s memory that enriches our sense of everyday life at a time and place we could never experience first hand. Like a good novel but much more real. Such was the feeling enjoyed when talking with Olive Frost in August, 2006.
According to three documents written around 1953 for the first Putney town history, the beautiful brick building known as Pierce’s Hall was erected in 1831, “for a Methodist meeting house.” It has a foundation of long, beam-shaped granite slabs hauled from West Dummerston, and the brick came from Timothy Underwood’s brickyard on River Road. When the second meeting house was built in 1842, the Hall was sold to Leroy Pierce, “who used it for storage of corn, and kept sheep underneath the building.” There are some records of dances held in the building earlier than 1873, and in 1880 Norman and Mary (Carr) Cobb celebrated their wedding at the Hall. “It is stated that their six sons…drew their parents down in a sleigh from their home to the gala event.” Around 1881, the building was refurbished for use as a meeting house.
Procedure adopted Oct. 19, 2005
a. Deaccessioning is the removal of an object from a museum’s permanent collection. It is a standard museum procedure, but it is a serious undertaking which requires careful consideration by both the staff and the Board of Trustees. The Putney Historical Society museum has deaccessioned objects from the permanent collections and will continue to do so in order to remain a viable institution.
Ruth Barton, President ’14 Tim Ragle, Vice President ’14 Tom Jamison, Treasurer ’14 Stuart Strothman, Secretary ’14 Barry Stockwell ’15 Betsy MacIsaac ’16 Laurel Ellis ’16 Leah Toffolon ’16 Lindley Speers ’16 Lyssa Papazian ’14 Barbara Taylor ’14 Maryanne Toffolon ’14
This album is currently on display in the entry of the Putney Town Hall. At the time of the dedication of the Putney Veteran’s Memorial in 2003,Laurel Ellis and Marilyn Loomis collected as many pictures as possible of men and women whose names are carved on the memorial. It was not possible to get pictures … Read more
Interview and transcription by Paul Levasseur, April 2007
This is the best job in the world for anybody like me.
I had a very tough childhood, but as I grew older it got better, through my work. That’s what made me happy, I found out.
This is the best job in the world for anybody like me. You know, you can meet nice people, you have a good time, and you get paid for having a good time! I mean I just met so many wonderful people, and it’s never been a job for me. It’s been a good time, all the time. My kids can’t get over that, or anyone that knows me can’t get over that.
by Matthew T. Boulanger, Archaeometry Laboratory, University of Missouri Research Reactor and Thomas R. Jamison, Hartgen Archeological Associates, Inc., Putney, Vermont
Archaeologists are particularly interested in identifying evidence of prehistoric long-distance trade and exchange, and artifacts made from stone are some of the best records of such exchange because they can be traced back to specific geological outcrops. Archaeologists often develop an intuitive knowledge about the types of stone and their potential sources that were used prehistorically. In Vermont for example, most archaeologists recognize quartzite from the Cheshire formation or chert from the Champlain Valley. But, when archaeologists encounter an artifact made from stone not found in their region of inquiry, they use the term “exotic” to describe it.
Occurrences of so-called exotic artifacts are not uncommon in Vermont.