History pg 1 9-29-22
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caption:
Eryn Boyce, architectural historian, explains the history of the School Street/Providence Street neighborhood. Linda Lemmon photo.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The history of Putnam is linked to the history of the School Street/Providence Street neighborhood. That neighborhood was the point man for Putnam’s growth.
In a presentation marking the 50th anniversary of the Aspinock Historical Society Eryn C. Boyce, architectural historian from Public Archeology Laboratory (PAL) of Pawtucket, R.I., noted that neighborhood was the guiding light for Putnam history and growth.
The detailed survey by PAL was required by the state as “mitigation” for the demolition of the red historic Aspinock Historical Society building. It was removed to make way for the entrance/exits to the new Municipal Complex. Soon — perhaps by the Aspinock’s actual birthday of Sept. 26 — two informational signs on the neighborhood, one covering the neighborhood and one covering the educational history, will be installed on a wall in Aspinock’s space inside the complex.
Bryce said the working class neighborhood began with single-family homes and then tenements as the mills came in. Textile mills ruled life.
In the 1830s, she said, the reason the neighborhood developed the way it did was because of the introduction of transportation. Roads “helped build Putnam and the neighborhood,” she said. Around the same time the Providence & Worcester Railroad came in and fostered more growth.
Stores and services followed with groceries, meat markets, two shoe stores and more.
Real estate investors, such as Phineas Gardner Wright, built homes and tenements (originally Centennial Street was named Wright Street).
Bryce also detailed the four building styles that filled the working and middle class neighborhood. “They’re all so unique,” she said.
Greek Revival style became popular from 1810 to 1820. The British building style became unpopular because of the War of 1812.
Italianate followed with the availability of pattern books. It had arch design, asymmetry, and wide overhang roofs with brackets.
From 1880 to 1910, Queen Anne style became popular with its steep pitched roofs, pattern shingles, elaborate details, cut-away bays and wrap-around porches.
And finally the neighborhood contains examples of Victorian Eclectic homes which were larger than Queen Anne and had more dominant “massing.”
As for churches, the only one on old maps was the “African Church,” the Calvary Baptist Church on School Street. It closed in 1896.
The original Day Kimball Hospital was on Bolles Street.
Mills-lead growth for the neighborhood moved into educational growth.
Putnam’s original high school was the old town hall but a new school was needed because of Putnam’s growth so in 1909 the 6.5 acres of land where the Municipal Complex stands now was purchased for a new high school. It opened in 1911 and was converted into a grammar school in 1955 after the Flood of 1955 inspired the construction of the current high school on Woodstock Avenue.
Also on the same complex parcel, in 1916, the state trade school for Connecticut was built. Bryce said that Connecticut was a pioneer in opening trade schools nationally.
The trade school moved from textile to aviation. Students attended from all over and many boarded in homes in the neighborhood. Eventually the trade school became a middle school and was connected to the high school/grammar school. The buildings were demolished in 1977-78.
As for the Aspinock Historical Society’s home from 1992 to 2020, that was built by Asa Munyan Ross and Flora Ross in 1891. Mr. Ross, who Bryce said “had his hand in many pots,” sold to building to the town in 1943.
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