Putney aims to save itself by taking over fire-damaged store, closed church
By Kevin O’Connor Staff Writer – Published: August 16, 2009
PUTNEY — First the centuries-old general store went up in flames. Then the big church across the street closed. In response, the Putney Historical Society has decided the best way to preserve its community isn’t to scrapbook old photos, but to acquire the buildings and bring them back to life.
Could the precedent-setting example, as experts believe, help other small towns save similar landmarks?
A half-century ago, when the late, legendary governor and U.S. senator George Aiken lived here, Putney was the epitome of village life. Want to shop? Socialize? Worship? You just walked to the center of town.
But in the fast-forward age of the Interstate and Internet, two recent setbacks have given this 2,600-resident community pause. The Putney General Store, opened on Main Street in 1796 and billed as the state’s “longest-running general merchandise store,” was gutted by fire one dark night in May 2008.
“We were looking at the possibility of someone tearing it down and building a one-story convenience store,” recalls Lyssa Papazian, a resident who works as a historic preservation consultant.
Then this summer, the 30 or so members of the nearby 237-year-old United Church of Putney, facing declining attendance, two decades of budget deficits and a dwindling endowment, disbanded in a move the pastor described as “death with dignity.”
Enter the volunteer, nonprofit historical society, which is well on its way to raising close to $1 million in community contributions and government and foundation grants to revitalize both buildings.
Log onto the society’s “Save the Putney General Store” Web site — putneygeneralstore.org — and you’ll read how 18 different owners have run the business over the past two centuries. But after the blaze, no one wanted to tackle the costly cleanup or competition from a firing line of supermarkets 10 miles south in Brattleboro.
That’s when the society, ready for a new project after publishing a 160-page history for the town’s 250th anniversary, cooked up the seemingly pie-in-the-sky idea of taking over the business.
“Our intention is that the building, when renovated, will stay on the tax rolls and remain a key part of Putney’s village commercial center,” members state on the Web site.
Their first move: Team with the Preservation Trust of Vermont, a Burlington-based nonprofit that for three decades has helped communities plan and raise money for historic restoration projects.
After the trust provided $5,000 to purchase an option on the property, the groups determined they’d need $10,000 for a feasibility study, $105,000 to buy the building, $238,800 to rebuild its slate-shingled roof and wooden frame and a final $500,000 for inside reconstruction.
Soliciting locals, they convinced lawyer Jonathan Bump to provide $4,000 in pro bono work and a dozen families to secure a $100,000 loan from Chittenden’s Socially Responsible Banking program.
Filling out paperwork, they reaped an additional $3,500 grant and loan package from the trust; a $5,000 grant from the Vermont Community Foundation and $10,000 grant from the Windham Foundation; a $77,000 grant and loan package from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board; and nearly $90,000 in state downtown and village center tax credits and $100,000 in federal historic preservation tax credits.
Tapping politicians, they received a $200,000 Vermont Community Development Program grant during a March visit from Gov. James Douglas and a $100,000 federal Preservation Trust grant this month in a phone call from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
In total, the society has raised about $550,000 — about two-thirds of its $860,000 goal. It’s now seeking $130,000 in community contributions and $100,000 more in grants to hire an architect (Papazian, as volunteer project manager, is accepting proposals through Friday) and refurbish the interior.
Putney isn’t the first community to raise money to restore a landmark, but those are usually historic halls, granges, libraries or theaters. Paul Bruhn, executive director of the Preservation Trust, can name only two similar Vermont store efforts: a cooperative working to reopen Shrewsbury’s long-shut W.E. Pierce store and a volunteer group aiming to take over the Guilford Country Store.
“Running a village store is a little bit like being a farmer,” Bruhn says. “It’s very hard to be successful if you have a lot of debt.”
Since nonprofits can reap grant money that shopkeepers can’t, the trust is encouraging communities in similar situations to buy storefronts and lease them to established entrepreneurs.
In Putney’s case, the society is negotiating with the Lisai family, which has run markets in Bellows Falls since 1926 and Chester since 1993. All want to reopen the store by the second anniversary of the fire next spring.
“You would think in this economy that organizations would step back and say this isn’t the right time, but they’re not doing that,” Bruhn says. “They’re committed on trying to get things accomplished.”
The trust, for example, also is assisting the operator of the new Putney Books in the nearby circa 1797 Tavern building, as well as the East Putney Community Club restoring its neighborhood Pierce’s Hall.
And the society, acting as fiscal agent for the latter project, is about to move into the recently shuttered United Church of Putney.
The congregation started in 1772 — a decade after the state’s oldest, Bennington’s Old First Church — and settled into its Greek revival meetinghouse, now on the National Register of Historic Places, in 1841.
But the dwindling membership didn’t have the money to support a full-time minister, let alone pay to keep up a two-story building with a sanctuary, dining room, kitchen, parlor and two furnaces. And so it decided to give the church to a local nonprofit willing to maintain it for community suppers and support groups.
“Our hope is that in dying,” Pastor Susan Tarolli said upon her church’s June closing, “we will experience new life.”
The society expects to pay about $15,000 a year for building operations — a leap from its current rent-free, unheated space on the second floor of the Town Hall.
“We’re stretched very thin on our fundraising, but we have enough in our regular bank account to cover at least a year or two,” society president Stuart Strothman says. “One of the things that makes this possible is the church didn’t have a recent fire.”
The society will offer public tours Saturday as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. People can see the general store at 3 p.m. and church at 3:30 p.m. before the society gathers at 4 p.m. to formally approve the latter acquisition (More about the event can be found at putneyhistory.us).
Papazian hopes the town’s efforts will restore not only its buildings, but also its bustle.
“What does a general store mean to small-town America? They may not make sense in the modern marketplace, but they’re essential to a community. People stop for a cup of coffee or a quart of milk. It gives a rhythm that, without, just took life off the street.”
Adds Strothman: “When we started, we didn’t have the kind of experience you might expect, but we were able to bring in so many wise advisers. I don’t expect we’ll always be such a big player, but right now we have momentum to revitalize the village, maintain its character and support and strengthen our own mission.”
kevin.oconnor@rutlandherald.com