General Israel Putnam House (1648)
The earliest (rear) section of the Putnam House in Danvers was built in 1648 by Lt. Thomas Putnam. The house would go on to be the home of twelve generations of the Putnam family. During the Salem witchcraft trials, Joseph Putnam, who spoke out against the ongoing hysteria, lived on the property. Joseph’s son, Israel Putnam, for whom it’s now known, was born in the house in 1718. General Israel Putnam was a famous colonial officer and one of the primary figures at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. In the 1850s, Daniel Putnam operated a shoe-making business in the house and in the twentieth century, the family ran a candy and ice cream shop next door called the Putnam Pantry. A number of additions were made to the house over the years, including the eighteenth-century gambrel-roofed section that is now the front facade. The Putnam family gave the house to the Danvers Historical Society in 1991.
please save putnam house. get someone in there that is creative, rent it out so it wont cost to keep it. you woule rather tear down history ahd keep the eye sore of multi cell on the corner of pine and holten.? REALLY? YOU GOT RID OF IDEAL BABY SHOE! you keep this frend up and danvers will have no history left!
We would be happy to concider renting it.
The goal of the Historical Society IS to save the Putnam House. They hope to accomplish this, by transferring it to the control of some other non-profit that has the wherewithal to do so, because the Society Can’t do it on their own and the General Israel Putnam Homestead Trust, which has over a MILLION dollars in a fund dedicated to maintaining the house., which was formed by the estates of the family members who gave the house to the Society, to fund the repairs done by the Society,has refused to work with them. So the house is slowly deteriorating from lack of maintenance.
Dave, you are misinformed. The General Israel Putnam Homestead Trust gave the Historical Society $165,000.+/-. In addition to the $100,000 Endowment they received with the house. That’s $265K or a quarter of a million dollars. Drive by, take a look it’s a mess.
I believe he was against the Witchcraft Hysteria and moved to Connecticut and became a founding member of the Hiram Lodge. The first Mason Lodge in Conn. I wrote about him in my new book Sub Rosa.
The two Ann Putnams are ancestors of mine. Are any photos of the interior and exterior of the house at the time the Ann’s lived there available?
Thank you. R. Taylor
Captain John Putnam was my 8th grandfather
Roberta, this was the house owned by Thomas Putnam Sr. Though Thomas Jr lived there as a child, he and Ann Sr and Jr were not living in that house in
1692. In 1692, Thomas Putnam Jr’s family lived in the current area of what is now Danielle Drive, Danvers.