(Host) The town of Putney is celebrating the start of reconstruction on its general store.
Townspeople pulled together to rebuild the store after it was damaged by fire in 2008. Only a year later, a second fire was set by an arsonist and destroyed the store.
VPR’s Susan Keese was there for the festivities.
(String band music)
(Keese) The new store everyone’s celebrating on this October weekend is still a fenced-in cellar hole at the town’s main intersection.
But now there’s a yellow excavator in the hole, waiting for the work week to start again.
The party’s across the street on the green outside the Putney Tavern. There’s chicken on the grill, kids’ games, politicians, neighbors chatting at tables or discussing plans for the new store.
Lyssa Papazian says the project quietly broke ground in September. Papazian and the Putney Historical Society have been at the forefront of this protracted effort.
(Papazian) "We’re on our way and the effort to get us to this point has been tremendous and we wanted to give the community an opportunity to celebrate that. The last time we all got together we were all kind of wringing our hands and crying."
(Keese) After the first fire in 2008, local people poured $100,000 dollars in donations into restoring the community hub. The structure had been built around 1796 and was believed to be Vermont’s oldest continuously operating village store.
The Historical Society raised almost a million dollars in grants, and bought the store. The plan was to lease it at a favorable rate to a community minded proprietor.
Repairs were under way last November when a still-unidentified arsonist set the fire that burned the building to the ground.
At a candlelight vigil, citizens vowed the store would rise again.
The effort was aided by the nonprofit Preservation Trust of Vermont. Director Paul Bruhn says the trust has helped half a dozen Vermont towns keep their village stores in business.
(Bruhn) "That said, I don’t know that there has been another community who has been faced with the challenges that you have in bringing the general store back to life. Putney is all about perseverance."
(Keese) Historical Society member Jeff Shumlin introduced the store’s future proprietor, Ming Chou — an experienced butcher with a store in Massachusetts and a desire to move his family to Vermont.
Shumlin thanked the residents for contributing, not only money, but hard work, and even the timbers that will frame the new store.
(Shumlin) "The Putney General Store really was and is a crossroads for this community. It’s not only where you grab your cup of coffee, but it’s where you meet your friends and neighbors, find out who’s struggling, when a baby has been born. It is really part of the glue of this community."
(Keese) Shumlin also noted that businesses in the village have struggled in the store’s absence, and reminded everyone to shop locally for the holidays.
For VPR News, I’m Susan Keese in Manchester.