PHS items

The PHS is looking for someone to help manage our website and member list. Tasks – Update website as needed with pages, posts, images, PDFs. Time involved is minimal for most of the year (less than 1 hour/month; once a year newsletter takes about 15-20 hours) – Add people to the newsletter mailing list as … Read more

The PHS fields numerous requests for information on Putney history every year.  Here is a list of research and activities we have provided during 2026. Hosted a showing of a film of the play The Equivalent Lands Helped researcher investigating forts and fortified houses in the Connecticut River Valley Researched David Rugg, one of the … Read more

December 6, 2026, 2 pm, at Next Stage The Annual Meeting of the Putney Historical Society will be held on December 6, 2026 at 2 pm at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill.   The meeting will feature several displays of materials and artifacts from our collection focusing on music, quilts, the former PHS museum, and recent … Read more

Over the years, the Vermont Historical Society newsletter made mention of the activities of the Putney Historical Society, giving a glimpse into the PHS activities that attracted attention at the state level.  A few other items of more general interest are identified below. VHS Newsletter June 1953 Vol. 4, No. 10 – pages 75-79.  The PHS participated … Read more

Tuesday June 18, 1946 On a cool and very slightly damp morning in the middle of June 1946 life was likely pretty quiet in downtown Putney.  The approximately 1000 residents were busy with their tasks for the day when a fire broke out in the Putney Paper Mill.  The fire disrupted operations of the pulp … Read more

A Zinc Fountain In the collection are many pieces of a zinc fountain. Water would have spouted from the mouths of at least four fish. There was also a bird’s or angel’s wing as part of the fountain. Does anyone know where this fountain was located, was it in Putney, who donated it, have any … Read more

Historic postcards of Putney produced by A. J. Ayer appear online periodically.  Most of them are of the immediate vicinity of the intersection of Main Street and Kimball Hill and have rather poor resolution giving a kind of fuzzy look to them.  But they are labeled A. J. Ayer Series.   Steve Picazio at the Vermont Historical Society … Read more

Found in Ladies Aid Society of 1915-1916 minutes notebook of Mrs. Lura Frost of East Putney was a magazine clipping titled “Crazy Creatures” from 1945. “A cow was killed by her owner in Putney, Vermont after she swallowed his wallet.  He not only recovered his money but a darning needle, two fishhooks, his driver’s license and … Read more

The Town of Putney and the Putney Historical Society Announce Window Restoration of Historic Putney Town Hall  PUTNEY, VT — September 1, 2026 — The Town of Putney with the Putney Historical Society (“PHS”) proudly announce a comprehensive restoration of windows in historic Putney Town Hall. The project is the first step in a planned comprehensive … Read more

Sunday, March 22, 2026, 2 PM (doors open at 1:30) Join the Putney Historical Society for a book launch with local historian Bill Darrow celebrating the publication of Putney Then and Now: A Vermont Town in Photographs, 1885–2025. This handsome softcover volume pairs rare historic photographs from the 1880s and early 1900s with contemporary images, revealing … Read more