Putney Village Historic District |
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Site: V04-1 |
National Register Nomination Information:
DESCRIPTION: A small mill village in the Connecticut River Valley, the Putney Village Historic District extends to the north and south from a compact center near the falls of Sackett's Brook. The spacious northerly extension encompasses the formal, late 18th and early 19th century farmhouses that formed the original village center, while the southerly extension includes the less architecturally cohesive and more heavily trafficked U.S. Route 5, as well as two small branch roads. Most of the 107 primary buildings in the district are clapboard, slate roofed, 1-1/2 to 2-1/2-story houses. Federal style or vernacular examples of the Georgian Plan and I-House configurations predominate, though vernacular Greek Revival or early Italianate style, 1-1/2-story, gable front, Sidehall Plan houses are also numerous. Capes, Classic Cottages, and diverse late 19th and early 20th century vernacular houses are represented as well. While 22 buildings are non contributing, they are counterbalanced by the generally high architectural quality found in the district. Of special note is the striking, close-knit streetscape of stores and small workers' houses that stretches to:the top of Kimball Hill from the highly focal district center. That center is marked by several large, non-residential buildings of diverse periods. The A.M. Corser Store, #51 (south section), and the massive, hip roofed, Georgian Plan tavern, #52, are the two primary visual focal points there, and have historically been hubs of social activity as well. The store, which has two eaves front, 2-story bay windows, terminates the impressive Kimball Hill streetscape, and can be seen from far to:the south on U.S. Route 5. Equally prominent, the late 18th or early 19th century tavern across the street is the centerpiece of an impressive, curving row of five public-oriented buildings that unite Westminster West Road with U.S. Route 5. Those south of the tavern, the brick Methodist Church, #69, and the Town Hall, #67, are major landmarks for travelers from the north and south. Those northwest of the tavern, the Congregational Church, #47, and the Masonic Hall, #49, contribute formality to the most densely built up section of the district. Also marking the district core are a 1-story brick paper mill, and the Baptist Church, #63, both located on"Christian Square" a small loop opposite the intersection with Westminster West Road. On the small island in that intersection stood, in the early 20th century, a bandstand that helped to visually tie all these elements together. Nearly 30% of the buildings in the district date from before 1830, almost all of which are houses. Of those, half have a clearly distinguishable style. While buildings of this period are scattered in the southern half of the district, the finest examples are found both at the district center, and lining the spacious and rolling Westminster West Road.to the north. Many of the latter stand on artificial hillocks set back from the road, and are fronted by rows of locust trees. Of special note on that road are #3, a vernacular Georgian style I-House with corner and entry quoins, #19, a 1772 Cape, and #'s 2 and 11, brick-ended, Federal style I-Houses with unusual facade ornamentation (#11 however, is covered with aluminum siding). Two of the most ornate Federal style houses, #'s 27 and 32, stand atop Kimball Hill, facing the village center below rather than the road, and act as gateways to Westminster Road. In the district center itself, #'s 41, 46 and 66 are also excellent examples of this style, and #52 is an excellent example of a tavern of a slightly earlier period. While the Georgian and Federal period is dominant in the district overall, the Greek Revival period, which accounts for 22 structures, most slgnificantly shaped the district center. Several prominent examples of the Greek Revival style the Congregational and Methodist churches, #'s 47 and 69, the Masonic Hall, #49, and #70, a house with a 2-story portico, are located there, as is a particularly unusual example of the style, #39, a small gable front house with a unique, fanciful door in an ornate surround. The latter is one of four generally similar houses that establish a rythm of gables that climb Kimball Hill. Two stores built in the Greek Revival period, #51 (north and south sections), terminate that streetscape. The Greek Revival style Perfectionist Chapel, #53, which originally had a 1-story portico, was another major architectural element in the district center from this period, before being rendered non-contributing by a fire about ten years ago. Another significant loss was the demolition about seven years ago of the vernacular, 2-1/2-story, gable front, Perfectionist Store, built around the same time, which stood just north of #54. A Greek Revival style feature shared by the Congregational church and several Greek Revival style houses, located between and including #'s 39 and 98, is entrance ornamentation formed of wide, high relief, molded fascia boards and corner blocks. The motif survived into the 1860's, and was added to three houses that were all probably remodeled during that time, #'s 62, 72 and 83. Dating.from about. the time of those remodelings to about 1885 are only twelve buildings, which are found throughout the district. They range from very simple, gable front, vernacular houses such as #'s 12, 64 and 95, to the more impressive vernacular Italianate style residence, #21, to two major village landmarks, the Italianate style Town Hall, #67, and the Second Empire style Hewett House, #77. The latter stands just south of the district center on a large lot, set back from the road. Most subsequent development in the village occurred in the southern end, which was, until the 1880's characterized by merely a few scattered, vernacular Greek Revival style houses, and the Maple Grove Cemetery, #86. The only significant exception to this was the construction around 1890 of four houses in the district center, built one above the other on the steepest part of Kimball Hill, between #39 and the top of the hill. Three of them, #'s 29, 36 and 37, are identical, square, hip roofed duplexes, while #34 is a similar single family house type. Houses that began to fill in the southern area include the two vernacular examples of the Queen Anne style in the district, #'s 93 and 94 (built c.1905 and c.1885, respectively), the towers of which proclaim arrival into the village for travelers from the south. Nearby are three diverse, vernacular examples of the later Colonial Revival style- #89 (1916), a fine example of the then-prevalent "Four Square" house type, the clapboard, hip roofed #102 (c.1918), and the wood shingle, gambrel roofed #105 (c.1920). Of the 22 non-contributing structures, only three, #'s 53, 73 and 76, are significant detractions, all occupying prominent locations, and all having replaced important historic structures. There are only two significant gaps in the district resulting from demolition or fire within the past fifty years, one between #'s 11 and 15, and the other in the general vicinity of #80. Number 80, now a quite isolated, Georgian Plan house, is shown in early 20th century photographs as part of a continuous, tree-lined streetscape containing several similar houses. While deterioration is a relatively minor problem in the district, alteration, especially in the form of artificial siding, replacement of original entrances, and installation of small-sash windows, has eroded the historic fabric of several significant buildings. Despite these losses mentioned above, the Putney Village Historic District retains a remarkable degree of cohesiveness and architectural quality considering its large size and geographic diversity. Descriptions of individual buildings in the district follow (numbers refer to sketch map).
1. House, c.1790. The house is similar to #46, a 3/4 Cape oriented gable end to the street, in that each has identical entrances in both the primary eave side and the third bay of the right gable end. Number 44 however, was constructed with much more formal, Federal style entrances. One particularly unusual feature of this house is the west gable end door, known by local tradition as a "widow's door", which has a small hole cut out of the wide boards. During her wedding, the widow who owned the house supposedly stood naked on one side of the door, and passed her arm through the hole to accept the ring, thus symbolically severing all ties with the past‹and absolving her new husband of her former husband's debts.(la) The house has only an early 20th century hip dormer breaking the slate roof, and a recessed carriage barn wing as appendages. The 2/2 sash windows have flanking blinds, and are diminished in the gables, with delicately molded cornices. The front door, c.1865, is covered by sheet metal weatherization, while the original raised;panel east gable door has two replacement glazed panels and a storm door, Both doors are topped by 5-light transoms. The house stands on a concrete faced fieldstone foundation, and is trimmed by corner boards, narrow frieze boards, and a slightly overhanging molded cornice. The west gable end has a flush cornice and slightly returning frieze boards. The exterior brick chimney was added to that end around 1967. The wing was built in two sections. The clapboarded, slate-roofed right section (c.1830) has hand hewn mortice and tenon framing and a broad canted arch opening, while the vertical flushboarded left section (c.1880) has circular sawn mortice and tenon framing, a sheet metal roof with truss bracketed eaves, and large sliding and hinged doors. 1a. Tobacco Barn, c.1900. The last of several tobacco barns found along Westminster West Road as late as the 1930's, this approximately 22 x 40 foot building, now used as a potter's studio, is relatively small compared to the other tobacco barns that once stood nearby. The circular sawn, mortice and tenon framed barn bears the numerous ventilation slats, formed of hinged vertical flushboards, which are peculiar to this barn type. Non-original features include the sheet metal roof, fixed two sash windows in the east eave side, and numerous very recent, irregular, rounded windows in the south gable end.
2. House, c.1795 /c.1805. It was very likely built within a year of, and by the same family as #11, a very similar brick-ended I-House (though now covered by aluminum siding) which was built by Captain Thomas H. Green.(2a) According to a former owner, who claimed to have found dates carved in the basement, the main block was built in 1805 (which is consistent with the architectural detailing) onto an existing Cape, now the ell, which was built in 1795.(2b) The massively proportioned, high-relief facade ornamentation of the main block exhibits strong influence from certain examples of the Georgian style in America, which were derived from early 18th century English pattern books. The central door of the 5x2 bay main block has two broad, molded panels, and a glazed and paneled storm door. It is framed by fluted Roman Doric pilasters with slight entasis, each of which stands on a plain base and supports an entablature fragment containing a triglyph with guttae. These support a pediment with drilled mutules that is broken to accommodate a semi-circular fanlight with radiating muntins and variously colored lights. The raking cornice moldings of the pediment have unfortunately been replaced by plain fascia boards. Framing the facade are two massive, tapering wall pilasters with entablature fragments, which are nearly identical to those of the entrance, though larger, unfluted, and without bases. These support the slightly projecting molded box cornice which trims the slate roof. Windows have 2/2 sash, and on the facade are flanked by louvered blinds. The front first floor windows have large, delicately molded cornices, while the second floor windows abut the cornice. The clapboarded rear wall is unfenestrated, which further suggests that the ell preceded the main block. The first floor windows in the brick, common bond end walls are surmounted by semi-circular relieving arches. Between the two bays of each of these walls rises an interior end chimney. The house stands on a granite slab foundation, while fieldstone retaining walls support parts of the artificial hillock. The ell has a central door, original and replacement 12/12 sash windows, and an asymmetrical gable roof, the front hall of which has the lower pitch, and extends beyond the wall plane to cover a recessed porch. While such a porch is unusual for an 18th century Cape, the former ell of #32, which was also originally a free-standing Cape, was very similar (see #32). Wall sheathing within the porch is wide horizontal flushboard. The original door has six raised panels, and a 5-light transom with alternately orange tinted and clear lights. The gable front Late Bank Barn, connected to the ell by a small clapboard extension, was built about 1870, and measures approximately 35x50 feet. It stands on a fieldstone foundation, has a partially open basement story, circular sawn, mortice and tenon framing, clapboard sheathing, a sheet metal roof, and random 6/6 sash windows. The gable front has a large sliding door, a hayloft door above it, and a 6/6 sash gable window. A newly rebuilt sliding door serves the south eave side.
3. Corn Crib, c.1915 (converted to a house, c.1975). Atop the original fieldstone foundation is a cinderblock foundation broken by multiple light, horizontal windows. In the gable center is a batten door. The gable window and one side window have 6/6 sash. Open eaves expose decorative, curvilinear rafter tails.
4. The Major James Fitch House, c.1779. On April 21, 1779, 28-year-old Major James Fitch bought 101 acres of land on this site from Moses Johnson, who had built #8 several years earlier.(4a) Fitch presumably built this house soon thereafter, since on September 20, 1779 he published his intention to marry Lydia Clay, and in 1781 their son, James Fitch Jr., was born.(4b) In 1809 Fitch built #5 , across the street, for that son. Also in the early 19th century, Major Fitch ran a tannery on the small brook that flows between his house and Moses Johnson's, which may be #7 today.(4c) In 1880, Putney S. Hannum moved into this house from Weston, Vermont, and became a prominent farmer. His son, Fred B. Hannum, raised enough tobacco through the 1920's and into the early thirties, largely on land just north of #3, to fill two large tobacco barns that stood behind this house, one of which was 100 feet long.(4d) Around 1905, according to David Hannum, Fred B. Hannum, his father, built the two story ell, and added the fine Colonial Revival style porch that spans the front. Turn of the century photographs show this house with a previous wrap around, c.1880 porch, which had scroll sawn corner brackets and square posts.(4e) The broad central door of the house has six varied, raised panels, and a 7-light transom with alternately green tinted and clear lights. Flanking the door are fluted, necked pilasters that support plain entablature fragments which border the transom. A molding underlines the transom, and projects around the pilasters to form capitals. This entrance is framed by wide bands of staggered quoins formed of beveled square blocks (two per quoin). Windows have replacement 12/12 sash, 2/2 sash, and in the gables, original 12/8 sash. Blinds flank windows on the front and south sides. First floor windows have heavy molded cornices topped by small hip roofs, while the second floor windows abut the intricately molded, narrow frieze. The slightly projecting box cornice is studded by numerous small mutules along the front and gable ends. This cornice forms pediments on the gable ends that have clapboarded tympana which extend farther than the wall planes‹a rare, characteristically 18th century feature also found on #19. Trimming the corners are staggered, beveled quoins laid upon wide corner boards. The foundation is concrete faced fieldstone. Breaking the rear pitch of the slate roof, just within the rear wall, are two massive, slightly corbelled chimneys. The deep, full front porch (c.1905) consists of six Tuscan columns, with plinths at top and bottom, that stand on a concrete floor and support a low hip roof with a molded box cornice and matchboarded ceiling. On the back is a 2-1/2 story, 4-bay, clapboard ell which is anchored by a massive central chimney and fronted by a plain shed-roofed porch. Fenestration is various, including original and replacement windows and doors. A l story, clapboard ell extension (c.1950) contains two garage bays. Attached by a narrow walkway to the north gable end is the non-contributing wing built in the early 1940's as an office for Dr. Daniel Charles DeWolfe, who came to Putney in 1939.(4f) The 4x1 bay, 1 story, 3/4 Cape has fluted entry pilasters, 8/12 sash windows, clapboard sheathing, and an asphalt shingle roof. 4a. Shed, c.1900. A large gable front door serves this approximately 10 foot square, clapboarded shed, which has multiple sash eave side windows, a cinder block foundation, and asphalt shingle roofing.
5. The James Fitch Jr. House, c.1809. The 2-1/2 story, 5x2 bay, clapboard I-House has a 1-1/2 story rear ell connected to an eaves front Yankee (Early) Barn. The door (c.1870) has two glazed, round headed upper panels, and is topped by a wide lintel board with a widely projecting, intricately molded cornice. Windows have 2/2 sash, abut the frieze boards in the second floor, and occur diminished in the gables. The latter are enclosed by louvered blinds. The house stands on a projecting concrete foundation, and is topped by a steeply pitched sheet metal roof, from which rises a small central chimney. Trim includes simply corner boards and a projecting, returning box cornice. The interior retains Federal style detailing, including a finely molded mantel in the north parlor. The ell is trimmed like the main block. From it, on the south side, projects a lean-to containing two large, double leaf doors. On the north side of the ell, adjacent to the main block,is a clapboard lean-to. The barn (c.1820) has the large central opening typical of this barn type, as well as a smaller, added garage door to the left, and a pass door to the right. Sheathing is variously board and batten, horizontal and vertical flushboard, and sheet metal roofing.
6. The Foster A. Wheeler Store, c.1785. Especially notable about the building is its great height and depth relative to its width, the very steeply pitched slate roof, and the massive, paired interior end chimneys, three out of the original four of which survive. The first floor windows appear to have originally been longer than those of the second floor, which may have been related to the original function of this building as a store. Moses Johnson (see #8), not long after selling land to Major Fitch in 1779 (who soon thereafter built #4), sold land to Foster A. Wheeler, who built this store, and operated a blacksmith shop across the road.(6a) The store had probably been standing well over a decade by 1806, by which time it was still the only fully brick building in Putney (number 2, probably constructed by that time, has brick ends).(6b) In 1839 Wheeler sold the store and blacksmith shop to Henry Barton of Boston, who ran the store and shop until about 1850, when the building became a dwelling.(6c) This building was once connected by a passageway to #7. That small factory utilized power from the brook running past the property, and was later moved a short distance to its present location.(see #7). The common bond brick store stands on a granite slab foundation, has no appendages, and has doors in three of the four sides. Trim includes simply the slightly projecting, returning box cornice, and the raking friezes. Windows have 2/2 sash, which in the second floor nearly abut the cornice, and in the first floor are surmounted by Dutch arches, separated from the window frames by three courses of brick infill. Surrounding the paneled door are fluted pilasters and an underscaled pediment with a central urn. Opposite this entrance, in the 3-bay rear eave side, is a French door. In the central bay of the north gable end is a Christian cross door sheltered by an entry hood with a delicately molded returning box cornice. 6a. Carriage Barn, c.1865/c.1880/c.1915. Built in three sections, this carriage barn consists of a tall, 1-1/2 story gable front block with a flush, 1 story, eaves front ell. The gable front section, built around 1880, has a steeply pitched slate roof, clapboarded balloon frame, fascia trim, and a large sliding door at left. Above this are a hayloft door and a large louvered gable window. Of the four bays of the ell, the right two were built around 1865 and have circular sawn, mortice and tenon framing, a large diagonal batten sliding door to the right, and a 2/2 sash window to the left. Around 1915, two additional carriage bays were added to the south of this ell, which have splayed lintel boards that form slightly elliptical arches. The rounded, exposed rafter tails of this new section were continued across the front of the c.1865 section as stubs, for decorative purposes.
7. The Putney Cheese Factory/ The Wallace Ford House, c.1820/1909. The building originally stood on the north bank of the brook that flows past to the north, and was attached to #6 , Foster Wheeler's store, by a passageway before being moved to its present fieldstone foundation.(7b) By at least as early as October, 1874, the building housed the Putney Cheese Factory which, according to a Brattleboro newspaper of that date, was managed by R. G. Page, and produced about 17,000 lbs. of "extra quality cheese" in that year, which sold for 14˘ per pound.(7c) Sometime in the 1880's Oliver B. Wood rented the building and made cider for a few years. Around 1900, Wallace Ford bought it, began converting it to a house, lived in it several years. but died in 1905 before finishing the remodeling. In 1909, Harry Amidon bought it from Ford's family, who had continued to live there, and completed the work.(7d) The somewhat irregular fenestration of the house includes 2/2 sash windows, and a glazed and paneled door, sheltered by a simple gabled hood, located left of center in the south eave side. Trim includes corner and frieze boards, and slanted eave soffits. A central cinder block chimney rises from the asphalt shingle roof. Serving the basement level of the east gable end, facing the road, are two large, double leaf doors. At the opposite gable end is a board and batten, shed roofed, plastic-enclosed greenhouse (c.1980).
8. The Moses Johnson House, c.1773. On June 16th, 1773, Moses Johnson, a 32-year-old carpenter from Stamford, Connecticut, bought 64 acres on this site from Captain John Kathan (see #83), and probably built this house in the same year.(8b) The house stands prominently on a small rise set back from the road, at the intersection of Sand Hill Road. The attic framing, though now covered with insulation, bears the Roman numerals that Johnson carved upon each corresponding mortice and tenon to guide him in raising the frame.(8c) A few years later, Johnson sold parts of his 64 acre tract to Major James Fitch, and to Foster A. Wheeler, who built #'s 4 and 6, respectively. Johnson, a Whig, in 1775 assisted in arresting Putney resident Judge Noah Sabin, considered to be a dangerous Tory, and taking him to the Westminster jail one of the events leading up to the infamous "Westminster Massacre".(8d) Johnson later went on to become a Lieutenant in the Revolution. Louisa Amidon, a direct descendant of Moses Johnson, presently lives next door in #7. The house has an extended rear ell which is flush with the south gable end. The four panel main door is covered by a non-contributing batten storm door. Framing it are nearly full sidelights, and simple pilasters with block bases and capitals that support a narrow molded pediment that touches the window above. Thick, half-round fillets border the heavy lintel board along top and bottom, and project slightly over each pilaster, forming the capitals and neckings. The broad tympanum has wide fascia board in-fill. Trim includes wide sill boards, corner and frieze boards, and the widely projecting returning box cornice. Windows have 6/6 sash, and in the second floor break through the frieze to abut the cornice. The diminished gable windows retain their original 9/6 sash. The foundation is brick on the front and south sides, and fieldstone on the north and rear. Two small, near central chimneys rise from the rear roof slope. The gabled ell, which may have originally been a separate structure, has a 6-bay first floor (south side) and a 4-bay second floor, added around 1900 to the south side only. A 1-story ell extension has three 4-light knee wall windows, and a broad central carriage bay supported by two chamfered posts. A large brick chimney (c.1970) rises from the roof of this extension where it meets the ell.* 8a. Furniture Workshop/ Garage, c.1980. This irregular gabled structure has ells that include a 2-car garage. The clapboard building has an asphalt shingle roof and various small-light windows. Non-contributing. 8b. Shed, c.1920. This long, eaves front, board and batten shed has various cross-braced doors across the front. Non-contributing. * According to: Edith De Wolfe and others (editors), The History of Putney Vermont: 1753-1953 (Putney: The Fortnightly Club of Putney, Vermont, 1953), p.47, the first sermon of the Congregational Church was held in this house in 1772, though the actual date was probably 1773.
9. House, c.1780. The non-contributing, near central batten door has a fascia surround with a splayed lintel board and crude, non-original dentils. Small 6/6 sash windows have fixed blinds on the front eave side only. The house stands on a cinder block foundation, has corner and frieze boards, and a slightly projecting, returning molded box cornice trimming the asphalt shingle roof. The cornice is nearly flush on the west gable end, and flush and unmolded on the east. Wooden openings in the foundation at the northwest corner indicate an interior privy. 9a. Carriage Barn, c.l900. A deteriorated, clapboard, eaves front carriage barn which was once connected to the house through a wing, this small building has a large opening in the right half of the eaves front, and an asphalt shingle roof.
10. House, c.1865. All windows have 2/2 sash and peaked lintel boards. The door, in the west eave side of the ell, has added upper lights, and is sheltered by a simple shed-roofed porch supported by a turned post. The house stands on a brick foundation, and has trimming sill, corner and frieze boards, and widely projecting, returning molded box cornices. Two small chimneys rise from the asphalt shingle roof. The 2x1 bay shed has an octagonal gable window with radiating muntins, and a non-contributing shed-roofed porch on the south. The greenhouse has a double pitch, asphalt shingle and glazed shed roof, and clapboard walls. 10a. Carriage Barn, c.1865. This 1-1/2-story, clapboard, gable-roofed structure has been converted to a 2-bay garage through the addition of two overhead garage doors on the gable front. A pair of 6/6 windows mark the gable which is defined by a returning cornice. A large shed dormer has been added to the north roof slope.
11. The Captain Thomas Greene House/The Congregational Church Parsonage, c.1810. The house was built by Captain Thomas Greene, who was apparently of the same family as the builders of #2. (11a) Though Greene had leased this land from John Campbell in 1805, he probably did not build the house until after 1806.(11b) According to an 1825 historical sermon by Reverend Elisha D. Andrews, there was only one brick ended house in town in 1806, and evidence suggests that it was #2, not this one.(11c) In 1834, ten members of the "United Christian Society" joined together to buy this house for use as a Congregational Church parsonage. The building was specifically intended for the use of Reverend Amos Foster, who was installed as minister in 1833, his successors, who were to be "Orthodox Congregational Trinitarian Ministers, and for no others."(11d) The house is the last bit of physical evidence associated with the second Congregational church (which stood from 1803 to about 1845), save for the flat depression a few yards south of the house where the church stood. From this high point of Westminster West Road, near the intersection of Sand Hill Road, the church marked the symbolic center of the village before the area down by the falls of Sackett's Brook took precedence around 1840. The church was rebuilt at its third and final location near those falls in 1841 (#47), while this house remained as the parsonage for as many as twenty years more, until a new parsonage, #60, was built. Impressively situated upon a hill, set back from the road, the house is served by a drive lined with large locusts and maples. Framing the replacement, c.1970 paneled door are simple entrance pilasters with heavily proportioned, high relief capitals and replacement molded bases. A similarly heavy entrance entablature is divided by a molded taenia, and topped by a projecting cornice. Very similar to these pilasters are the two massive, tapering wall pilasters that frame the facade. They have pedestals, molded bases, and necked molded capitals, and may have supported entablature fragments that were removed when the aluminum siding was installed. Windows have 2/2 sash. From the low pitched, slate hip roof, which is trimmed by aluminum-enclosed eaves, rise two massive interior end chimneys. The main block stands on a granite slab foundation, while the rear wing, which is flush with the south end, has a brick foundation. Sheltering the glazed and paneled wing door (c.1890), in the center bay under the cross-gable, is a 1-bay entry porch formed of two Italianate columns supporting a hip roof. A wing extension (c. 1970) contains three canted garage bays. 11a. Carriage Barn, c.1900. The first floor of this small, gable front carriage barn is completely open, while the clapboard gable has a hay loft door. The eave sides are sheathed with vertical flushboard, and the roof with sheet metal. Trim includes corner and frieze boards, and eaves with slanted soffits.
12. House, c.1870. The door, in the right bay of the gable front, has two long, glazed upper panels and a fascia surround. Windows have variously 1/1 and 2/2 sash, in similar surrounds. Trimming the clapboard walls are sill boards, and corner boards that curve to meet the raking friezes. The steeply pitched slate roof is trimmed by eaves with slanted soffits and molded cornices. The foundation small central chimney are brick. Spanning the front is a porch with a lattice skirt, turned posts, a spindle balustrade, scroll sawn corner brackets, and a shed roof. In the 4-bay wing is a 3-bay recessed porch, supported by slotted posts that are linked by flat, scroll sawn balusters. The clapboard barn extends one story below grade, and has a slate roof and fascia trim. In the right half of the gable front is a large opening, and a hayloft door above. A fixed 12-light window lights the attic. In the south eave side are two fixed 4-light stall windows. Below these, in the basement is a canted arched pass door, and a similar but wider carriage bay.
13. Late Bank Barn, c.1870. 13a. Office, c.1960. This small, 2-bay wide, 1-story, clapboarded gable front building has a gabled hood over the door, a flush, eaves front ell, a cinder block foundation, and an asphalt shingle roof. Non-contributing. 13b. Privy, c.1900. Unless moved to the present site, this privy suggests that a house once stood nearby. The approximately 5x5 foot, clapboard, gable front building has fascia trim and an asphalt shingle roof
14. Bank Barn, c.1830 / c.1905. The barn has a clapboard gable front, board and batten eave sides and an open basement story to the south. The gable front has fascia trim, and 1/4-round eave brackets. In the sheathing of the south eave side can be seen what may be markings from the original large main door. Recent alterations include a horizontal, 4-part gable window, two variously sized doors occupying the location of the former sliding door in the right third of the gable front, and three skylights in the slate roof. 14a. Blacksmith Shop/ House, c.1900 / c.1970. Originally a blacksmith shop, this small, slate roofed, vertical flushboard sheathed building has undergone substantial alterations within the past ten years in its conversion to a house. It is barely visible from the road due to the slope of the hill. New windows, siding, exterior chimney, deck. Non-contributing. 14b. Barn Foundation, c.1870. The barn that stood on this approximately 20x100 foot fieldstone foundation, which is parallel to the road, was probably an eaves front bank barn similar to but larger than #13. It burned around 1900 and is now used as a parking lot for #14. 14c. Barn Foundation, c.1870. Of the three barns that originally stood here, the one built on this approximately 15x40 foot fieldstone foundation may have been a horse barn. It burned around 1900 and is now used as a parking lot for #14.
15. The David Crawford House, c.1822. Crawford became a distinguished Captain in the War of 1812, and later held several public offices, including justice of the peace for twenty-five years and state senator in 1840 and 1841.(15b) His son James apparently took over the house by 1869, since "J. Crawford" appears by this house on the Beers' map of that year.(15c) Number 14, and two other barns that once stood across the road, were originally associated with this house (see #'s 14,14b and 14c). The original door surround, which appears in a c.1890 photograph of this house, was dominated by a tall, very heavy and intricately molded broken entablature which had slight projections in the center and above each pilaster.(15d) The present surround frames a c.1850 door with multiple added lights, and is composed of projecting sideboards and a widely projecting molded pediment. Windows have replacement 12/12 sash, and in the second floor abut the eaves. An intricately carved dentil course with rounded gaps underlines the front eave, and projects slightly to clear the lintel boards of each of these windows. In the gable ends, the second floor and gable windows have heavily molded cornices. The house stands on a granite slab foundation, and has a steeply pitched slate roof trimmed by a returning molded box cornice. Other trim includes plain raking friezes, and corner boards. An approximately 60 foot long, 1-story, slate roofed rear ell is flush with the south gable end, has 6/6 and paired 12/12 sash windows, two glazed and paneled doors, and in the west end, two canted arched carriage bays. 15a Shed, c.1950. Small, tar papered, shed roofed shed. Non-contributing.
16. House, c.1950. 16a. Garage, c.1950. Gable front, approximately 12x20 foot, novelty sided garage with a central overhead garage door. Non-contributing. 16b. Shed, c.1950. Gabled, novelty sided shed with a rear lean-to and an exterior cinder block chimney. Non-contributing. 16c. Shed, c.1970. Vertical flushboarded shed roofed shed, approximately 7x15 feet. Non-contributing.
17. Patch House, c. 1915. A 1920 photograph postcard of this house refers to it as the "Patch house", which may be the name of the original owner. Significant alterations to the original appearance have included the removal of a porch that spanned the east gable end (similar to the present entry porch), the installation of a large picture window with small-light muntins in the right bay of that gable end, the sheathing with aluminum siding, and the front addition to the wing.(17a) The door, in the second eaves front bay, has horizontal panels and small upper lights. The entry porch is supported by turned posts and scroll sawn corner brackets. Windows have 2/2 sash and fixed, flanking blinds. Over the right two eaves front bays are single-light knee wall windows. A returning box cornice trims the slate roof. The wing has two small, 2/2 sash windows, and a non contributing, shed-roofed addition which has narrow vertical windows. 17a. Shed, c.1915. This approximately 15 foot square, clapboard shed has a concrete foundation, asphalt shingle roof, fascia trim, slanted eave soffits, and a door identical to #17. 17b. Barn, c.1915. A small, 20x30 foot, eaves front Bank Barn converted to residential use, this building is sparsely fenestrated, and has a large, recently added, triangular light in the south gable. The clapboard barn has fascia trim, a staggered butt slate roof, and large sliding and hinged doors to the basement level . The primary original entrance was through the west eaves side (uphill), the opening of which is now sealed and fronted by a deck.
18. House, c.1825. The primary entrance (left bay) consists of a Christian Cross door flanked by 2/3-length sidelights. Each sidelight is framed by elongated pilasters formed of fascia boards with narrower boards laid over them, and delicately molded bases and capitals. They support a tall broken entablature which has a slight projection over each pilaster. Windows have molded architrave surrounds, molded cornices, flanking blinds, and predominantly 2/2 sash, though original and replacement 12/12 sash , and a 6/9 sash gable window are also found. The house stands on a brick foundation, and is trimmed by corner boards, narrow frieze boards, and a molded box cornice. From the slate roof rise two tall, corbelled chimneys with iron, crested caps (c.1870). The 2-tier porch spans the south side, and is formed of balustraded, Greek Doric columns. In the wing extension are two non-contributing, small-light picture windows. 18a. Gazebo, c.1870. Originally a related structure to #38a, this octagonal, arcaded gazebo was moved to the present site around 1965, after #38a, a small vernacular house, was destroyed by fire. As shown in an early 20th century photograph, the structure originally stood on the approximate site of #35, atop a hill high above #38a, and was served by two flights of stairs.(18aa) Measuring approximately 8 feet in diameter, the gazebo has a flared, octagonal hip roof with widely projecting eaves supported by scroll sawn truss brackets. Below the eaves, in each wall, are decorative scroll sawn valances, and similar 4-round corner brackets below them that form round arches. Each wall has lattice in-fill, and a paneled lower spandrel. 18b. Barn, c.1825 / c.1870. Originally an eaves front Early (Yankee) Barn , this barn was expanded by the addition of the gable front, 2-1/2-story, 2x3 bay Bank Barn ell to the south gable end. A 16-light transom marks the location of the original large, eaves front door, now covered by vertical flushboard sheathing. The clapboard, gable front addition has numerous replacement 12/12 sash windows, and a large opening in the gable front left bay. A slate roof covers both sections.
19. The James Haile House, c.1772. In 1772, James Haile (1745-1808), of Warren, Rhode Island, bought 70 acres of land on this site from William Pierce, and probably built this house soon thereafter.(19a) His fourth son was born in Putney, presumably in this house, two years later. Haile later fought in the Revolution.(19b) On March 26, 1793, a group met in this house as "...proprietors and subscribers for purchasing a library to be kept in the town of Putney", thus founding the Putney Library,which still exists.(19c) In the 1840's the house was occupied by Achsah Campbell, who was one of those accused by a grand jury of "having had relations" with John Humphrey Noyes. One of her daughters later married Noyes' son, George.(19d) The 4-panel front door of the house, covered by a plain board for weatherization, is topped by a 5-light transom, and framed by a delicately molded architrave surround. The slightly projecting box cornice directly above this has a continuous crown molding that wraps around the gable ends, under the gable projections. Windows, which also meet the low roof eaves, have plain surrounds, flanking blinds, and 6/6 sash in the first floor. In the north gable is a paired 12/12 sash window, and a small, square, fixed 4-light window in the west gable corner. The south gable contains one 12/12 sash window. The house has a fieldstone foundation and a slate roof. Inside are two molded fireplace mantels, and a 5-foot-high fireplace with a crane and brick oven. A small, gabled, non-contributing garage (c.1950) is attached by a narrow walkway at the northwest corner, and has novelty siding, an asphalt shingle roof, and an overhead sliding door in the gable end.
20. House, c.1820. A small, extended ell projects from the rear, and two massive chimneys rise from the rear pitch of the slate roof, just inside the rear wall. Surrounding the Christian Cross door and its 2/3-length sidelights is a delicately molded architrave surround. Above this is a plain, broken entablature which projects slightly over each of the four door and sidelight jambs. The cornice above it has a crown molding that follows each projection. All windows have 6/6 sash and flanking blinds. Those in the first floor, as well as the diminished gable windows, have molded cornices, while those of the second floor have molded architrave surrounds. Above the entrance is a 6/6 sash window flanked by narrow 4/4 sash sidelights, suggesting a Palladian window. This and the other second floor windows interrupt the narrow main block entablature, which is supported at the front corners by elongated pilasters with necked molded capitals. The interior is very well preserved. The clapboard and asphalt shingled ell is flush with the north gable end, and extended by a 1x1 bay addition that is flush with the south gable end. Another ell extension to the west (c.1965) contains two slightly arched garage bays. 20a. Carriage Barn, c.1820. Very close to the house is this approximately 20 foot square, vertical and horizontal flushboarded carriage barn. It has an asphalt shingle roof, and a large sliding door in the left of the eaves front, topped by a 12-light transom. A small clapboard lean-to on the east nearly touches the wing of #20.
21. Clough House, c. 1869. The spacious house is characterized by very regularly spaced bays, which are emphasized by the paired, scroll sawn brackets- which line the non-returning box cornice. Windows have 2/2 sash, molded cornices and flanking blinds, and in the 3-bay eaves front of the second floor, abut the molded frieze. The gable windows and center window above the entrance have narrow, paired 1/1 sash. The raking friezes curve down to meet the corner pilasters, which are very similar to those of Federal style houses in the district, such as the nearby #s 20, 22, and 27. Each leaf of the double leaf door has a long, round headed, etched glass panel. The surround is formed of engaged, chamfered Italianate columns that support a stilted lintel board, and a cornice studded by rounded modillions. The balloon framed house stands on a brick foundation, and has a slate roof and near central chimney. Fronting the wing is a porch similar to the original main block porch. It has chamfered Italianate columns, a molded entablature, a low hip roof, and a skirt of decoratively sawn vertical flushboards. The barn wing, which descends to a full basement level to the north, is clapboarded on the north and west sides, vertical flushboarded elsewhere, and has S-round brackets along the raking friezes. It has a large opening in the front (south) side.
22. House, 1799. The Christian Cross door is flanked by 2/3-length sidelights, and is framed by a molded architrave surround. An entablature and cornice over it may have been removed when the porch was built. The second floor windows, which retain their original 12/12 sash, have molded architrave surrounds and cornices, and abut the narrow, intricately molded entablature. First floor windows have 6/6 sash and similar surrounds. The center window, above the door, has 3/3 sash sidelights, suggestive of a Palladian window. At the front corners are elongated pilasters with necked molded capitals that support the entablature and slightly projecting molded box cornice. The porch has balustraded turned posts that are topped by scroll sawn corner brackets, and that support a frieze, molded cornice, and low hip roof. Fenestration of the small 2-bay ell has been mostly altered. Still evident above the right two bays of the 3-bay, carriage barn ell extension, despite significant deterioration, are remnants of two elliptical arches cut out of the wide horizontal flushboard sheathing. The approximately 30x25 foot barn attached to this is also deteriorated, and has a large eave center opening, flushboard sheathing, and a sheet metal roof. 22a. Mike Herbert, in an interview, 1/13/85, citing information given to him by his father, Fred Herbert.
23. House, c.1860. The door has two round headed, glazed upper panels, and a fascia surround with a wide lintel board. Windows have 6/6 sash. Trim includes sill, corner and wide frieze boards. Roof eaves have slanted soffits. The foundation and tall, near central chimney are brick. The ell is trimmed like the main block, and has a glazed and paneled door, and small, paired 4-light windows.
24. Central School, 1906. 24a. Garage, 1984. Eaves front, 2-car, vertical flushboarded garage with a truncated sheet metal roof. Non-contributing.
25. House, c.1945. 25a. Garage, c.1970. A small, shed-roofed, 2-bay garage. Non-contributing.
26. House, c.1955.
27. The Noyes Homestead / Locust Grove, c.1810. In 1822 Noyes' father, Hon. John Noyes, a retired Brattleboro businessman and U.S. Congressman, bought this house from Captain Benjamin Smith, who was a prominent Putney merchant and probably the builder of the house.(27a) In 1835, Tirzah C. Miller, one of Hon. John Noyes' daughters, described her family's home as: "...a large, handsome, old-fashioned house, situated upon a graceful eminence overlooking the little village of Putney...". "A rare group of locust trees of uncommon height and size..." she continued,"...gives to the place the name of 'Locust Grove'"(27b) Some of those locusts remain today. Because of the numerous books and journals in the house, as well as Noyes' disposition, Miller wrote: "visitors are impressed with the intellectual atmosphere which pervades the place."(27c) It was this intellectual environment in which John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of "Modern Perfectionism", grew up. After leaving Putney for several years for schooling and preaching, he returned in the late 1830's and began forming a small Utopian community by which he hoped to realize his ideal of "Bible Communism". This Utopian vision involved communal ownership of property, and eventually communal marriage as well. In 1846, Noyes secretly instituted a "complex marriage" and "consolidation of households" in Putney, centered in this and two other houses in the village(see#'s-62 and 76). This house became the focus of the Perfectionist community in 1847 when another consolidation took place, and "...the four principle families of the Putney Community were united [here] in a single household": the Noyes, Cragin, Skinner and Miller families.(27d) Other past owners include John Campbell, Omar Buxton and Muriel Nicholson. Particularly unusual about the house is the eave ornamentation, considering the date of the house, and the entry porch. Corner pilasters with molded bases and widely projecting necked capitals support an entablature consisting of an architrave with an elliptical chain link motif overlay, and a rope molded frieze. Originating from the taenia are numerous scrolling modillions that meet the soffit of the molded box cornice, and partially obscure the rope molding. The broad, flushboarded tympana, which are pierced by semi-elliptical lunettes that have radiating muntins, are framed by narrow raking friezes with cut out designs of alternating horizontal diamonds and vertical ovals. The simple shed-roofed entry porch is an especially fine example of Federal style ornamentation because of the extreme attenuation of the paired Tuscan columns that support it‹an emphasis on the decorative rather than the functional properties of columns. The entrance and windows are treated with similar delicacy. Flanking the Christian cross door are 2/3-length, 2/2 sash sidelights, and on either side of these are delicately molded paneled pilasters. A molded broken entrance entablature projects slightly above each pilaster. Windows have 6/6 sash, molded architrave surrounds, and broken entablatures that project slightly above each window jamb. Second floor windows abut the main block entablature. The delicacy of the ornament is counterbalanced by the two massive interior chimneys that rise from the ridge of the slate roof. The ell, which, like the main block, has a granite slab foundation, has an asphalt shingle roof with no eave projections, and a 6/6 sash gable window flanked by two smaller ones, suggestive of a Palladian window. Near the main lock, an ell door has an ornate, chamfered, truss bracketed hood, visible through a glassed-in enclosure. The wing has a brick foundation, sheet metal roof and a picture window in the east gable end. 27a. Early (Yankee) Barn, c.1810. Probably the primary barn to this house before a larger one was built on the site of #25, this eaves front, vertical flushboarded barn has a large double leaf door with cusped strap hinges, a fieldstone foundation, sheet metal roof, and a small lean-to on the south gable end, which is served by a large double leaf door. 27b. Ash House, c.1810. A rare example of an early 19th century ash house, this simple approximately 3x4 foot common bond brick structure has a small wooden gable front door.
28. House, late 18th century, c.1870. Noyes had set up a hand printing press in a sawmill loft in 1839 or 1840 to publish The Witness, which he had begun in Ithaca, New York in 1837 to promulgate his Perfectionist doctrines. If this building was in fact his print shop*, later publications of The Witness, and The Perfectionist, which was begun in 1843, may have been printed here.(28b) The building presumably became a residence some time after 1847, when Noyes and most of his followers were run out of town by hostile residents. The approximately 27x22 foot structure has a 2x2 bay ell to the south, and an L-plan carriage barn to the west. The door, which has two long, round headed glazed panels, and the 2/2 sash windows, have plain drip molded surrounds. Topping the high knee wall is a returning box cornice, and an asphalt shingle roof. A non-contributing shed-roofed porch shelters the door. The foundation is brick. Sheathing the carriage barn ells is clapboard, novelty siding, and slate roofing. There are several hayloft doors, and both canted and square carriage bays, with sliding and hinged doors. * See also: Constance Noyes Robertson, Oneida Community Profiles (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1977), p.96, for reference to a "printing office" included among the Noyes property.
29. Duplex, c. 1890. The double central entrance consists of two doors, each with long, rectangular, glazed upper panels, and both sheltered by a 2-bay, hip roofed porch supported by plain square posts. Windows have 2/2 sash and flanking blinds. The clapboard building has a brick foundation, fascia trim, a molded box cornice, and a slate roof. Built into a steep bank, it has a full basement story at rear.
30. House, c.1970. 30a. House, c.1975. A tall, approximately 20 foot square, 2-story, vertical flushboarded house with a truncated gable roof. Non-contributing.
31. Late Bank Barn / Multi-Family Residence, c.1870/c.1975. The barn has a fieldstone foundation, board and batten sheathing, a slate roof, and irregular fenestration, including paired 6/6 sash windows. The present entrance is through a door at gable left, while the original large central door has been sealed.
32. The Phineas White House / The John Kimball House, c.1815. Phineas White (1770-1847) was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, graduated from Dartmouth in 1797, and came to Putney in 1800 to practice law. He set up his office in a small brick building, #50, and lived in a simple, 18th century Cape that would later form the ell of this house, until about 1930. That Cape, the markings of which can still be seen on the back of this house, was similar to the present ell of #2 in that it had a recessed, eaves front porch.(32b) Between 1815 and 1820, White served as the state's attorney for Windham county, judge of the probate court, and Putney representative to the legislature. From 1834 to 1840 he was a state senator. He was also a member of the Putney Masonic Lodge, and became Grand Master of the state in the 1840's. White spent the last years of his life here farming.(32c) Another Dartmouth graduate whose life closely paralleled White's was John Kimball, who married White's daughter Frances Mary, and lived in this house from about 1840 probably into the 1870's. A lawyer in Claremont, New Hampshire, Kimball came to Putney in 1839, held various state level public offices, and spent the last years of his life here farming.(32d) He may have built the nearby large barn, #31. According to local tradition, Kimball, the namesake of Kimball Hill, built several houses on that hill, which would have to be #'s 39, 40 and 42-small workers' houses built around around 1840. The formal entrance of the house is framed by two large locust trees, and is led up to from a level carriage landing by two flights of slate stairs built into the steep, terraced front lawn. That entrance, which is virtually identical to Plate 30, Figure 1 in the above mentioned pattern book, has a Christian Cross door framed by 2/3-length sidelights and a 3-point arched fanlight, all gracefully leaded. Paneled door jamb pilasters have capitals that project slightly from the fanlight base. These elements are slightly recessed within an outer surround of fluted, necked pilasters supporting a fascia board that frames the fanlight, and that has repeated triglyph motif carvings. Windows in the facade (south side) and east gable end, which were taken directly from Plate 17, Figure 1 of The American Builder's Companion have 6/6 sash (as shown in the pattern book), granite sills, and polished granite splayed lintels with stepped keystones. They are flanked by mechanical louvered blinds. Windows in the much less formal, irregularly fenestrated rear and west sides have plain jack arches. The Flemish bond brick building stands on a granite slab foundation, has two massive, interior end chimneys, and a slate roof trimmed by a mutulated returning molded box cornice. A broad-gabled, clapboard, 3-bay deep ell spans the rear (north) side, has very narrow eaves sides, and has an irregular gable roof. The west gable end has a small, recent greenhouse addition.
33. The Stearne O. Parker House, c.1870. The house was built by Stearne O. Parker of East Putney, great grandson of Joshua Parker, who according to local tradition became the first settler on Westminster West Road in 1764. It was occupied in the early 20th century by a manager of the Robison Paper Company on Sackett's Brook, and had formally landscaped grounds.(33a) As a dormitory for Windham College from the 1950's to 1978, the house was known as the "Gray House". A fire in February, 1985 destroyed the roof between the gables, which the owner plans to rebuild. The door, at gable left, is covered by a non-contributing batten storm door. Windows have 6/6 sash. The clapboard house stands on a brick foundation, has sill boards, and raking friezes that curve to meet the corner boards. Before the fire, the roof had slate shingles, a central chimney and a non returning box cornice. Built into a steep bank, the house has a full basement story
34. House, c.1890.
35. House, c.1945. 35a. Garage, c.1945. Similar to the house, #35, in detailing, this 4-bay wide, eaves front, wood shingle carriage barn has fixed 6 sash windows, and a folding double leaf door in the right bay. Non-contributing.
36. Duplex, c.1890. The double central entrance consists of two doors, each with long, rectangular, glazed upper panels, and both sheltered by a rebuilt, hip roofed porch supported by turned posts. Windows have 2/2 sash, but the one above the entrance is sealed and clapboarded. The clapboard building has a brick foundation, fascia trim, a molded box cornice, and a slate roof. There is a small rear wing with irregular, shed roofed porches. Built into a steep bank, the house has a tall basement story at rear.
37. Duplex, c.1890. The double central entrance consists of two doors, each with long, rectangular glazed panels, and both surmounted by a large, 3-point arch, sunburst motif fan supported by fluted pilasters and flanked by coach lights. Windows have 2/2 sash, but the one above the entrance is sealed and clapboarded. The clapboard building has a brick foundation, fascia trim, a molded box cornice, and a slate roof. Built into a steep hill, the house has a full basement story at rear.
38. Carriage Barn, c.1870. The large, central, diagonal matchboard, double leaf door, and the 6/6 sash windows have label moldings with the ends cut off at 45 degrees. In the steep central cross dormer is a round headed, hood molded 6/6 sash window. Crowning the ridge intersections is a 1x1 bay, hip roofed cupola with arched openings and a bracketed cornice. Similar paired, scroll sawn brackets trim the eaves of the steep slate roof. Fenestration of both gable ends has been almost completely altered, and the north end has gained a non-contributing, clapboard lean-to. 38a Foundation Hole, c.1870. This approximately 22 foot square, fieldstone foundation hole is all that remains of the vernacular, c.1870, 1-1/2-story, Sidehall Plan house that originally stood here. Generally similar to #95, the house had a wrap-around Italianate style porch, and elongated first floor, 6/6 sash windows that reached the floor level. (38aa) The house burned around 1967. The small gazebo that stood atop the hill just north of the house, now #18a, was served by two flights of stairs built into the hillside. It was moved to its present location soon after the fire.
39. House, c.1840. The1-1/2-story, gable front, Sidehall Plan, 3x3 bay clapboard house has a small 2-bay rear wing, and a full basement story on three sides. The door has two large, square panels each having --round sunburst motifs in the corners, and each filled by a large, round, raised panel formed of concentric circles, and bordered by small triangular fringes. Surrounding the door are 2/3-length sidelights above pyramidal raised panels, and a paneled transom bar above. Framing the whole is an outer surround of high relief, channeled, raised panel fascia boards with bull's-eye corner blocks, and a plain projecting cornice. Crowning the cornice is a small horizontal board with a pyramidal raised panel. Flanking the 6/6 sash windows are blinds with both vertical and horizontal louvers (an unusual feature also found on #47). The house stands on a foundation of gold glazed brick, unusual for the period, and has fascia trim, a returning molded box cornice, a slate roof, and a small central chimney.
40. House, c.1840. The 1-1/2-story, 3x6 bay, gable front, Sidehall Plan house has a 4-bay south eave side porch (c.1890), a partial basement story at rear, and a 2-story residential and carriage barn rear wing. The 5-panel door is flanked by 2/3-length sidelights, and has a surround of high relief, channeled, raised panel fascia boards with bull's-eye corner blocks. There is a second door in the 4th bay of the south eave side. Windows have 2/2 sash and flanking blinds. The clapboard house stands on a brick foundation, has wide trim, a returning molded box cornice, and a slate roof. The hip roofed porch has turned posts with spindle balustrades, a frieze and molded box cornice, and a lattice skirt. In the wing are windows, a hay loft door, and in the basement level, a double leaf carriage bay door with diagonal matchboard panels. There is another large, double leaf batten door below the basement level. 40a. Blacksmith Shop/ Garage, c.1840 / c.1920 / 1985. Originally a 3x1 bay blacksmith shop, the two 6/6 sash first floor windows of this small, gable front, clapboard building were replaced by two large, 4-panel sliding doors in its conversion to a garage or carriage barn. (40aa) Slanted eaves trim the steep sheet metal roof. A 1985 remodeling removed the doors and substituted a shingle-roofed oriel and a glazed pass door. Non-contributing due to alterations
41. Baker House, c.1810 / c.1865. The door has two long round headed upper panels, and flanking 2/3-length sidelights. Door jamb pilasters are attenuated and paneled, while the outer entrance pilasters are fluted, and layed over wider sideboards. The broken entrance entablature has slight projections above each pilaster, each projection emphasized by the several moldings that jog over them. Windows have 2/2 sash, occur diminished in the gables, and have delicately molded architrave surrounds with flanking blinds. Trim includes sill boards, corner pilasters with molded bases and necked, widely projecting molded capitals, a narrow frieze abutted by the second floor windows, and a returning molded box cornice. The ornate Italianate style porch has square columns with shafts and necks that have round headed panels. These support a frieze with round ended panels between the columns, paired, curvilinear, pendanted brackets above each column, and a molded box cornice above. The 3-sided bay window, in the right bay of the south gable end, has narrow 1/1 sash windows, folding blinds, and paneled lower spandrels. One of the original two large, interior chimneys rises from the rear pitch of the slate roof. The foundation is granite slab. While the southern part of the interior of the house has been completely remodeled, the upstairs and north parlor retain original trim, and three very fine Federal style mantels. The substantially remodeled ell retains an elliptical arched carriage bay. Non-contributing additions include an oriel window, a door with a gabled hood, various windows, dormers, and a 2-bay ell extension that is flush with the main block. 41a. Office, c.1870. Haynes E. Baker made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a stock company in this unusual, approximately 12x15 foot, 1-story, gable front, clapboard building probably after selling his half interest in the "Old Corner Store", #51 (southern section) in 1869. (41aa) In the right bay is a door opening topped by a tall lintel board with a widely projecting cornice supported by scroll-sawn brackets. The deteriorated building, which stands on a brick and fieldstone foundation, has a slate roof with slanted eave soffits. Some of the windows retain their 2/2 sash and flanking blinds. Inside is dado matchboarding. A second related structure, apparently an early 19th century carriage barn remodeled to the Italianate style with a cupola and cornice brackets, was recently demolished by the present owners, who intend to use the timbers for a new church structure.
42. House, c.1840. The approximately 22x27 foot, 3x4 bay, 1-1/2-story, gable front, Sidehall Plan house has a basement story at rear, a full front porch, and a flush 3-bay ell to the north connected to a gable front carriage barn. The door, which has a large upper panel, has a plain fascia surround with bull's-eye corner blocks. Windows have 6/6 sash, and occur diminished in the gables. The clapboard house stands on a brick foundation, has fascia trim, a molded frieze, a returning molded box cornice, and a small central chimney rising from the slate roof. The porch, c. 1865, has three square, necked columns, a frieze, and a shed roof with a returning molded box cornice. In the ell is a central door flanked by 2/2 sash windows. The deteriorated, vertical flushboarded carriage barn has a sliding door at left with two lower cross-braced panels, and a rolled roof with a flush cornice.
43. House, c. 1810. The vernacular Federal style building has delicately molded trim, a full brick basement story in the rear half, an entry porch, and a 2-bay shed roofed ell that is flush with the gable front. The door has a large glazed upper panel, 2/3-length sidelights, and a delicately molded architrave surround surmounted by a tall lintel board and a widely projecting molded cornice. Windows have 2/1 sash in similar surrounds. Lining the eave sides are 8/8 sash knee wall windows. The clapboard house has fascia trim, and trimming the slate roof, a returning molded box cornice which is flush on the gable front, and only slightly projecting on the eave sides. The rear basement door is flanked by original 12/12 sash windows in molded surrounds. The gabled entry porch, c.1900, has four turned posts, and a matchboarded tympanum. There is a door and 6/6 sash window in the north wing. (Entry porch removed, fall 1985.)
44. House, c.1805. Built part way up Kimball Hill many years before the Congregational Church (#47) and the Masonic Hall (#49) were built below it, the house originally had a formal south eave side facing the village center below, while the equally formal, pedimented east gable end faced the road. The house is similar to #1, also a Cape with identical entrances in two sides. McClellan's map of 1856 shows D. Hager living here, while Beers' map of 1869 indicates Dr. D.P. White.(44a) Early 20th century owners have included Edwin Gorham, a painter, Dr. E. S. Munger, and Mrs. Blood.(44b) The house has a long 3-bay rear wing, and a long, 2-bay enclosed porch projecting from the south eave side. The remaining original entrance in the east gable end has a raised panel Christian Cross door flanked by 3/4-length sidelights, and framed by a molded architrave surround. Above this is a lintel board which projects slightly at the ends, topped by a delicately molded cornice that follows the projections. The small 6/6 sash windows have delicately molded architrave surrounds with molded cornices. The house has fascia trim, a molded box cornice, and a slate roof. In the wing is a double leaf sliding door, a 6/6 sash window, a glazed and paneled door, and full shed roofed porch across the front. The enclosed south porch, as seen in a 1916 photograph, was originally open, and had a clapboard apron and a lattice skirt.(44c) It now stands on a cinder block foundation, has a vinyl sided apron, and banks of 1/1 sash windows enclosing it. 44a. Livery Stable, c.1915. This large, approximately 30x35 foot, 1-1/2-story + attic, clapboard livery stable was probably built by Simon L. Davis, who ran the store in #51 (south section) for several years beginning in 1915. A sign in the gable from about that time reads: "S. L. Davis". The architectural detailing is consistent with such a date as well. The building has a symmetrically fenestrated facade which includes a central double leaf sliding door, a tall glazed and paneled hayloft door above it, and three 2/2 sash windows in each of the gable corners. In the extreme right is a 4-panel pass door. Each leaf of the central door has two long over two short, chamfered, diagonal matchboard in-filled panels. The upper central panels are filled with fixed 4-sash windows. Along the south eave side are seven small, square, single light stall windows. The building stands on a concrete foundation, has fascia trim, and a slate roof with raking eave soffits.
45. Store, c.1890. The central triple leaf door has long, 3-light upper glazed panels. To the right is a large multiple light window, and at left is a glazed and paneled door, similar to that serving the porch above. That porch is supported by 1/4-round chamfered truss brackets, and is formed of turned posts, spindle balustrades, slightly arched valances, and a hip roof with a molded cornice. Windows have 2/1 sash, with 12-or 4-sash storm windows. The gable window, framed by the returning molded box cornice, has replacement leaded glass (c.1975). The clapboard building has a concrete foundation and an asphalt shingle roof.
46. House, c.1805. The house has an entry porch and extensive mid-19th century additions. Framing the Christian Cross door are 2/3-length sidelights, and a wide fascia surround with a tall lintel board. Tuscan columns and two chamfered posts support the hip roofed entry porch. First floor windows have 6/6 sash, molded architrave surrounds, and broken entablatures that project slightly above each window jamb. A door in the center of the south gable end is glazed and paneled, and has a surround of narrow pilasters supporting a similar entablature. Second floor windows also have molded architrave surrounds, but abut the main block entablature. The window above the main entrance is flanked by 2/2 sash sidelights, suggestive of a Palladian window. Supporting the intricate, rope molded entablature are wide corner board pilasters with widely projecting, necked molded capitals. The molded box cornice forms pediments in the gable ends that each frame a full-sized window. The house stands on a granite slab foundation, and has a slate roof from which rise two massive interior chimneys. A 3-bay ell has a door in its partially exposed west gable, variously 12/12 and 9/6 sash windows, and 8-sash knee wall windows. From this ell projects a small carriage barn, parallel to the main block, which has a broad canted arch opening in the south gable, below grade behind the house. An approximately 30x22 foot recessed wing of this ell has a large, eaves front, central matchboarded sliding door, a double leaf hayloft door above, and four small stall windows across the north gable end. All three of these ells and wings date from the mid-19th century, are clapboard, and have slate roofs with returning box cornices.
47. The Congregational Church / The Putney Federated Church, 1841. The earliest record of the church is from 1772, when the first sermon was held in the newly built home of Moses Johnson, #8. The next year, the first meetinghouse was built across from Old North Cemetery, just north of the district, and in 1803, the second was built a few yards south of #11. The third and final move of the church came in 1841, following increased industrial and commercial activity at the present village center by the falls of Sackett's Brook.(47a) When built, the church had a high gallery in the back, which may have been removed to make room for the present classroom space in 1867, the year that the church was "thoroughly repaired". The present vestibule may have been built at that time as well. In 1893 the church was again repaired and remodeled, at which time the present bowed pews replaced the original ones, which had no central aisle, and an organ, carpet and Queen Anne windows were installed. 1915 electric lights and the present pressed tin ceiling were added. The church became the Putney Federated Church on January 10, 1919, when the Baptists and Methodists joined the Congregationalists, and left their church buildings, #'s 63 and 69. In 1938 the sanctuary was remodeled, which is probably when the molded entablatures and pediment inside were built, and any remaining stained glass was replaced by multiple sash windows.(47b) The church exterior is well preserved, though missing the battlements and tall corner finials that originally crowned both tiers of the belfry ridge tower.(47c) Two story corner and facade wall pilasters have entasis and necked molded capitals with paired annulets. They support an entablature and molded box cornice that form a full pediment. Each leaf of the central double leaf door has eight variously sized panels. This door, and the similar single leaf doors in the first and third bays, which are purely ornamental, have fascia surrounds and ornate raised panel corner blocks. Large upper story windows have 20/20 sash, while windows in the 7-bay first floor of the eave sides have 12/12 sash. All have blinds with vertical and horizontal louvers. The first tier of the belfry is flushboarded, and trimmed by corner pilasters that support a full entablature, and that frame a molded, circular applique studded with twelve keystones. Forming the diminished second tier are paired, paneled pilasters that support a triglyph entablature and a mutulated cornice. Between the inner pilasters of each side are smaller antae that support an open, keystoned round arch, through which can be seen the bell. A plain, wooden finial tops the low hip roof.
48. The Isaac Grout Store / "Grout's Stand" / The M. G. Williams Store, c.1804. As seen in a c.1900 photograph, the building had a door in the same location as the present left of center door, regularly spaced first floor windows, and a c.1870, Italianate style entry porch.(48e) By about 1920, as seen in a later photograph, the same door was flanked by two small-light picture windows, the openings of which still exist. Above them was a 2/3-width, second floor porch from which hung a sign that read: "M. G. Williams".(48f) The building now houses the Putney Consumer's Co-op. The building stands on a brick foundation, has a recent, aluminum sided rear lean-to, and a 3-bay wide recessed wing, added as an annex around 1865. In the first floor are two unpaneled, non-contributing doors that facilitate traffic through the co-op. At far right is an original, deeply recessed, raised panel, Christian Cross door topped by a 4-light transom. Windows have variously 2/2 and 6/6 sash, and occur both paired and single in the first floor. In the second floor they abut the eaves. Trimming the asphalt shingle roof is a molded cornice with slight returns but no overhang.
49. Masonic Hall, 1859. The doors, in the first and fourth bays, each have nine upper lights. have 6/6 sash and, like the doors, have peaked lintel boards. In the is a broad, triangular louvered opening, framed by the paired, scroll sawn brackets that line the returning molded box cornice. The building has a concrete foundation, fascia trim, a frieze with a molded lower edge, and a slate roof.
50. The Phineas White Office, c.1800 / c. 1875.
51. (North Section) Store, c.1845. The first floor, which now consists of five slightly recessed, aluminum sided bays has, in different bays, large fixed four sash windows, an 8-light transom, and a double leaf glazed and paneled door. Windows have 6/6 sash. The porch is supported by chamfered truss brackets, and is formed of chamfered Italianate columns on tall pedestals which are linked by scroll sawn, vertical flushboard balusters. Visible within the porch is the corner board and molded entablature trim, elsewhere covered by siding. The building has a concrete foundation, and a slate roof trimmed by a returning box cornice. The ell, which connects with #51 (south section) as a wing, was originally a carriage barn. The ell has been extended forward by a non-contributing, nearly full, clapboard lean-to which is flush with the facade of the south section. Above it are 6-sash knee wall windows.
51. (South Section) The C.W. Keyes Store / The A.M. Corser Store, 1840 / c.1900. Hand written in black paint on one of the roof planks in the attic is "C.W. Keyes 1840"- a very probable date of construction considering the massing, framing, and details such as the widely projecting, returning box cornice. Consistent with this information, the store is labeled "C.W. Keyes Store & P. O." on McClellan's map of 1856.(51d) In 1857, Alexis B. Hewett bought a half interest in the store, in partnership with Haynes E. Baker (see #41), who presumably bought the other half interest at the same time.(51e) Beers' map of 1869 labels the store: "Baker & Hewett Store & P. O.(51f) In 1869 A. F. Kelley bought Baker's interest, and the store became known as "Hewett & Kelley", until Hewett bought out Kelley's shares in 1872 and became the sole proprietor.(51g) In that same year, Hewett built his lavish Second Empire style residence, #77. Hewett kept the business until 1882. By 1883, H. E. Wheat was running the store, with the help of a 20-year-old clerk, Adelbert M. Corser of Dummerston. Wheat and Corser became partners in 1886 (at which time the store may have been called "Elmore Wheat & Son"), and in March, 1889, Corser became the sole owner. Corser, who at the time lived in #94, became widely known as a sewing machine salesman, and kept one man constantly on the road selling two brands of machines.(51h) Corser was also an amateur photographer, reponsible for most of the historic photographs in the collection of the Putney Historical Society. Corser sold the business to Simon L. Davis in 1915, and the next year built himself a new house, #89.(51i) Davis, in addition to the store, apparently ran the livery stable across the street, #44a, which bears his name. Subsequent owners have been Oscar Cummings, who named the store the "Old Corner Store", A. F. Fickett, who renamed it "Putney General Store", and the present owner, Robert Fairchild.(51j) While doing basement renovations several years ago, the present owner found remnants of stone flumes, indicating that the store may have been built on the site of an earlier mill. The store is entered through a double leaf, glazed and paneled door, which is recessed between the bay windows. These windows contain canted 1/1, 2/2, and large fixed 4 sash lights. In the southeast gable is a wide 8/8 sash window similar to those originally located in the facade. Below this, serving the attic, is a broad door with four raised panels and cusped strap hinges. A small gabled projection above it originally sheltered a hoist, which lifted goods to be stored in the attic. Spanning the first floor of this gable end is a recently added, clapboarded lean-to. The wing, which connects with #51 (north section) as an ell, was originally a carriage barn. It has been extended forward by a nearly full, non-contributing, clapboard lean-to which is flush with the facade. Above it are 6/6 sash knee wall windows. * First Name: Calvin W. Keyes. See: Edith De Wolfe and others (editors), p.156.
52. Captain John Stower's Tavern / Houghton's Tavern / Putney Tavern, c.1797. The approximately 54x28 foot wing, which meets the 40x32 foot main block flush on the south side, originally contained a very unusual, large ballroom with an elliptical-arched ceiling, the framework of which still exists, above the present dropped ceiling, in the attic. Original stenciling that trimmed this ballroom is also still intact, beneath the wallpaper. Equally as rare as the ballroom was the wrap-around porch with solid Tuscan columns, which spanned the wing and main block from at least as early as the early 19th century, up to 1953.(52a) The photograph caption of a c.1930 "Putney Tavern" brochure places the date of construction at 1797- a date that corresponds well with the architectural massing and detailing.(52b) According to deed research by Craig Stead, John Goodwin of Worcester, Massachusetts sold to Chandler Bigelow land on this site in 1797 or 1798. Bigelow in turn leased the property to John Stower, whose name is associated with the tavern through the first two decades of the 19th century. While Goodwin or Bigelow may have built the tavern, the precise date is uncertain, since the first specific mention in the Putney Land Records of a tavern on this site does not appear until 1805. The Brattleboro Reformer in the early 19th century carried continual announcements of Mason's meetings, carriage tax and debt collections, stallion showings, etc., at "Capt. John Stower's".(52c) In 1824, the building was actually used to reckon the exact center of town, when a decision by the Putney Library Society determined that "...the [library] books shall be kept within a half a mile of Houghton's Tavern."(52d) Asa Houghton was the proprietor from about 1818 to 1830.(52e) By the 1880's, the building was known as "Kendrick's Hotel", and was run by D. H. Kendrick.(52f) By 1901 Clifford Davidson was the proprietor and the building was known as: "Kendrlck House". (52g) Mr. & Mrs. E.W. Parker ran an inn called the "Putney Tavern" here around 1930, and by 1953, the building had been divided into apartments. The hip roof and wing of this building may be original, though there is some evidence that the original roof was gabled, and later reconstructed (before 1830) when the wing was built, in order to harmoniously unite the main block and wing roofs. A detailed examination of the building frame is necessary to determine the physical history of this structure. If original, the relatively steep hip roof would correspond well with the Georgian style features of the building, such as the massive proportions, heavy door surround, and complete moldings in the north parlor. Two bowed collar ties in the roof peak, which have roofing nails and rot on the tops, clearly formed a small platform atop the hip roof, with a bowed surface for water run-off. Water seepage apparently caused deterioration nevertheless, and a small cap was subsequently built which continues the roof ridges to the present peak. This hip roof platform may have originally been surrounded by a balustrade, and flanked by two massive interior chimneys, in the same locations as the present slender, c.1870 chimneys- all hallmarks of Georgian style roof treatment. The building is served by a wide 4-panel door, which is topped by a 6-light transom, and framed by a wide fascia surround with a splayed lintel board. Above this door, and two others in the long south side, are small gabled hoods. Windows have 6/6 sash (probably original), fixed blinds, and abut the eaves in the second story. The clapboard building has a projecting concrete foundation, beaded corner boards, a slightly projecting, delicately molded box cornice, and a slate roof. The wing has a shed roofed addition on the northwest, a flush returning cornice in the gable, and a corbelled interior end chimney. Attached to the southwest corner of the wing is a 3x2 bay, 2-story, gabled, c.1865, nearly free-standing wing with clapboard sheathing, 6/6 sash windows, and a slate roof trimmed by a returning box cornice. From this addition projects to the southeast a non-contributing lean-to, flush with the main block wing, which has an entry porch, oriel window, and exterior chimney. 52a. Garage, c.1950. A 25 foot square, cinder block, shed roofed, 1-car garage. Non-contributing.
53. The Perfectionist Chapel / The Village Room Restaurant, 1841 / c.1970. The present, non-contributing, 2-story, 3x4 bay, 27x30 foot, flat roofed building has a recessed central entrance sheltered by a gabled hood and flanked by oriel windows. Fenestration is otherwise irregular. The clapboard building has a vertical flushboard rear wing.
54. The Perfectionist Store Wing / Putney Fruit Company, c.1840.
55. Paper Mill, 1945. The building has an irregular plan to fit the site, and has narrow, vertical 12-sash windows. The mill that preceded it, probably built in 1895 following a fire on April 29 of that year, was a similar building, with tall, segmental arched 16/16 sash windows and tall flanking blinds. (55c)
56. House, c1950.
57. Shed, c.1960.
58. Tenement, c.1900. 59. House, c.1820 Possibly built by an early 19th century mill owner, this simple, 1-1/2-story, approximately 15x40 foot house is listed on McClellan's map of 1856 by the name "J. Robertson"- probably John Robertson, who arrived in Putney with his parents in 1823, and took over his father's paper mill, on the site of #55, with his brother George around 1865. (59a) John Robertson later moved into #62.(59b) Around 1925, the American Legion removed all the interior walls, and used the building as a hall, holding dances and other functions. The ell is a former schoolhouse moved to the site.(59c) The house has shed roofed additions on both eave sides and the gable front, and a 1-1/2-story ell. Original features include the clapboard west gable, which has a small 6/6 sash window and a nearly flush cornice, and the steep, staggered butt slate roof, from which rises a tall chimney. The 3-bay ell has a central door flanked by 3/4-length sidelights, and a recessed, 2-bay garage wing with both a folding double leaf garage door, and an overhead door.
60. House, c.1860. The house has a 5-bay rear wing, a 2x1 bay rectangular bay window on the south, and a 2x1 bay, 1-story, clapboard, shed roofed addition to the north. The door has two long over two short panels, and is flanked by full sidelights with multi-colored cast glass lights. Framing the entrance is a wide fascia surround with a plain projecting cornice crowned by a peaked lintel board. Windows have 2/1 sash and flanking blinds. The clapboard house stands on a brick foundation (concrete on the sides), and has fascia trim, a slate roof, and a returning box cornice.. The wing is fronted by a 4-bay porch with simple Italianate columns and a low hip roof. In the bay to the left of this porch is a non-contributing door with sidelights, which probably replaced a carriage bay. Wing windows have 6/6 sash. The two ridge chimneys have ornamental iron caps.
61. House, c.1855. The house has a high knee wall, fascia trim, and a slightly recessed, 4x1 bay wing. The door has narrow glazed panels, and a gabled, partially lattice enclosed entry porch with square posts. Windows have 6/6 sash. Trimming the staggered butt slate roof is a returning molded box cornice that is flush on the south end. The wing has windows, a door sheltered by a post-supported extension of the roof eave, and in the right bay, a sealed carriage bay.
62. The John Humphrey Noyes House / The John Robertson House, 1839 / c.1870. Noyes married Harriet Holt in 1838, and immediately moved into his father's home, #27. The following year he built this house. Early in 1840, Noyes' Perfectionist followers began holding regular meetings in this house, the result of which was the "Constitution of the Society of Inquiry of Putney, Vermont", which formed the basis of the utopian Perfectionist community that took shape in the following years. In 1846, Noyes secretly instituted a "complex marriage" and "consolidation of households" among his followers in Putney, which involved this house, #27, and the house that formerly stood on the site of #76. Among the Perfectionists at the time, this house was known as the "lower house", while #27, atop Kimball Hill, was referred to as the "upper house".(62a) The house was later owned by John Robertson, who apparently lived previously in #59. Robertson, whose name appears on this site on Beers' map of 1869, arrived in Putney in 1823, and,with his brother George, worked in his father's paper mill on the site of #55. The brothers took over the mill in the 1840's, and ran it through the rest of the 19th century.(62b) Robertson almost surely remodeled the house, adding the present door and surround, the elongated first floor windows, and the full front and gable end porches which have since been removed. Sarah Doyle remembers the house when the next owner, William Augustus Cole (1837-1907) lived there.(62c) Cole worked for John Robertson in his paper mill in the 1840' and 1850's, later buying a half interest in the company, and eventually becoming the sole owner. Cole rebuilt the mill after a fire destroyed it in 1895, that new building resembling the present one on the site (see #55).(62d) Cole also ran the Ashuelot Paper Company, in Ashuelot, N.H. According to David Hannum, a paper mill manager named Mr. Poland lived here after Cole.(62e) While the exterior of the house is generally well preserved, the full-width porches which were added around 1870 are missing. Only the polygonal, engaged posts of the former ornate, Gothic Revival style west gable end porch, and the chamfered, engaged columns of the former Italianate style full front porch, remain.(62f) The 4/4 sash windows in the first floor, which extend to the floor level, are clearly scaled to these former porches.(The glazed door in the fifth bay served the front porch). The wide. triple paneled door has long upper and short lower panels, 2/3-length sidelights, and a surround of high-relief, channelled, raised panel fascia boards with bulls-eye corner blocks. Also dating from this c.1870 remodeling is the 1-story, rectangular bay window in the east gable end, which has a denticulated and modillion-studded cornice. Indicative of the original 1839 date of construction are the diminished gable windows, which now have 2/2 sash, the semi-circular gable fan above them in the west gable, and the narrow, molded entablature, which is topped by a slightly returning box cornice. In the east gable is a replacement, square louvered opening; and possibly original, square, fixed 4-sash "Cape" windows in the gable corners. The clapboard house has a brick foundation, a slate roof, and a near central brick chimney. The ell is trimmed like the main block, and has 3/3 sash knee wall windows. The ell of that ell has a high knee wall, non-projecting eaves, an enclosed double carriage bay, and a balcony and stair serving the second floor of the gable end. 62a. Carriage Barn, c.1870. Probably built by William Cole when he remodeled #62, this somewhat altered, 1-1/2-story + attic, clapboard carriage barn retains its original, 2x2 bay, bracketted cupola, steep slate roof, and fascia trim. Irregular, replacement fenestration in the main block and recessed wing includes wide doors, various 6/6 sash and picture windows, and knee wall windows. 62b. House, c.1970. A very small, clapboard, 2x1 bay house with a taller 1x2 bay shed roofed addition on the gable end. Non-contributing.
63. The Putney Baptist Church / The Putney Community Center, Inc., 1884. The Baptist church was first organized in the western part of town, mostly by "thrifty farmers", in 1787.(63a) In 1790 the first church was built on "Orchard Hill", and in 1837, a new church was built at the south end of Aiken Road. Church membership began to decline in 1840, and the church became extinct by 1860. A few Putney Baptists joined the Baptist Church in Brattleboro in 1877, and three years later revived the denomination in Putney by establishing a branch church, meeting in the Town Hall, #67. The Baptists built the present church in 1884, "largely aided" by Dea. Jacob Estey of the nationally significant Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro. In 1892 the organ company helped retire the remaining construction debt.(63b) When the Baptists joined the Methodists and Congregationalists in forming the Federated Church in 1919, which still meets in #47, this building was abandoned . The chandelier was given to the East Putney Community Club and hung in Pierce's Hall (the former Methodist church), where it remains today. The building found a new use when, on September 10, 1925, the Putney Community Center, Inc. was organized. The church was bought for the purpose by summer residents Miss Sarah Andrews and Mrs. Bertha Estey, who supported the organization until the Depression. Later support came from the contributions of five individuals, including Mrs. Gamble, of Proctor & Gamble.(63c) The church interior, originally adorned with bowed, exposed roof trusses and ornate stenciling, was completely remodeled for diverse functions such as basketball and theater.(63d) In 1929 a smoking room and showers were added to the east. The approximately 45x30 foot building has a square central tower, a very steeply pitched slate roof, and a 3x3 bay gabled addition on cross-axis at rear. In the tower is the ornately paneled double leaf door, topped by a triangular arched label molding similar to those over the windows. All windows have narrow, 1/1 Queen Anne sash, and triangular fanlights with label moldings. They vary in size depending on location. The clapboard church stands on a brick foundation, and has a wide, vertical matchboard frieze that continues horizontally across the gable front, angling around the triangular arches of the windows,to define the staggered butt-shingled gable. This gable is bordered ~long the top by raking board and batten friezes. The horizontal flushboarded tower has a steep Mansard roof with diamond patterns in the shingles, broken in the front by the triangular arch of the window that protrudes up into it. There is a small board and batten crown, from which rose the belfry, which was pierced by large round arches, and topped by a tall, 4-sided spire with blind dormers.(63e) The clapboard, slate roofed rear addition, c.1900, is linked to the main block by a small walkway. It is surrounded by a wide paneled frieze which defines the staggered butt-shingled gables. Windows have 1/1 Queen Anne sash, and in the gables are topped by small, curved extensions of the sheathing above. The rear eave center door has a triangular fanlight in a small, bracket supported wall dormer. To the east is the clapboard, shed roofed, 1929 addition.
64. The Baptist Church Parsonage, c.1884. The door has two long, round headed, glazed upper panels, and a Tudor arched cut-out over the lintel board, similar to that of #85. Windows have 2/2 sash. The house has a brick foundation, slate roof, fascia trim, and a returning molded box cornice supported by paired, scroll-sawn brackets.
65. New England Telephone Company Dial Office, c.1970.
66. House, c.1820. The house appears on McClellan's map of 1856 by the name "G. H. Loomis M.D.", and on Beers' map of 1869 by "Dr. Allen"(66b) In 1875, Dr. George Foster came to Putney, and lived and practiced medicine here into the early 20th century.(66c) The house has pedimented gables, a c.1920 entry porch, a c. 1885 full south gable end porch, a rear ell, and various smaller, clapboard additions. Flanking the Christian Cross door are 2/3-length sidelights in-filled with small, replacement, paired glass blocks, c.1940. Delicate entry pilasters have molded capitals that project slightly to encompass the narrower pilasters layed over them. These, and the two Tuscan columns, support the gabled entry porch. Windows have 2/2 sash, and some remaining, original blinds. The second floor windows abut the narrow, molded frieze, which is supported by corner board pilasters, and topped by a molded box cornice. From the front pitch of the expansive slate roof rise two large, corbelled, interior end chimneys, which appear to have originally corresponded with two others in the rear roof pitch. The foundation is granite slab. The gable end porch, half of which has been enclosed and stands on a brick foundation, has turned posts and balusters, and brackets on the posts and roof eaves. The deteriorated and altered ell has a wide rectangular carriage bay, and irregular additions. 66a. Garage, c.1915. This small, approximately 12x15 foot, 1x1 bay, gable front, clapboard garage has a rolled roof, 2/2 sash windows, and a replacement overhead door.
67. The Putney Town Hall, 1871. In addition to its administrative functions, rooms in the building were used for Baptist services from 1880 to 1884, when #63 was built, for the Central School, grades 8,9 and high school from 1895 to 1906, when #24 was built, for the town library from 1896 to 1967, when #90 was built, and for the Post Office from 1942 to 1963, when #76 was built. The building has a gabled central pavilion, a low, truncated hip roof which is jerkin-headed at r |