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A Day Downtown

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Written by Thom Ring

If you want to live in a walkable community you could do worse than to move to the town of Putnam.

Putnam sits hard against Rhode Island as part of what Connecticut likes to call its "Quiet Corner," the state’s northeastern region. This is a beautiful part of Connecticut, far removed by more than distance from where the state shares the grime and gloom of New York City. The Quiet Corner of Connecticut is made up mostly of rolling rural hills, quaint New England villages, the occasional private boarding school and some of the most scenic roads in America.

It’s easy to imagine that Putnam once was the center of commerce for the region. Its small downtown flanking the Quinebog River is filled with solid brick buildings and surrounded by giant porched and gabled homes, many long-ago subdivided into apartments as prosperity left the town behind.

These days, however, it seems the timing of prosperity’s departure may have been fortuitous. It evidently froze in time Putnam’s downtown just when many more prosperous towns were tearing themselves apart on the way to total makeovers. And then, after that ridiculous approach to renewal fell out of favor, Putnam’s business and town-leaders apparently accepted a new approach to renewal; preserving some of the past rather than eliminating any evidence of it. Putnam’s center probably doesn’t look that different than it did a century ago. In a way, merchants there probably aren’t selling goods that are much different from what was sold in Putnam then, because the town has become a haven for antique dealers.

Antiques are great for a town even if you aren’t one to buy antiques. What better place to browse among venerable pieces of furniture, appliances, and the other accouterments of past lives than in a venerable town of venerable buildings? It’s intriguing to imagine what use the large storefront on the corner of Main and Front Streets served before it came to house scores of consigners selling every kind of antique under the sun. There’s no need to imagine when gazing at the building across Main Street, where another dealer offers a fun array of 50's-style and similar kitsch. The prominent name of Montgomery-Ward still graces its facade.

Towns with many antique dealers also attract other businesses favored by folks who like to linger. Main Street hosts a bookstore that offers a unique selection of books and cards. A few doors down there’s a consignment clothing store. A coffee shop across Front Street serves excellent beverages, obscene desserts and other delicacies in a gorgeous space that might once have been a bank. On the other side of the trendy restaurant next door is a space that houses a deli and pastry shop as well as a small art dealer that plays hosts to painters, jewelry makers, photographers and the like.

The works of a couple of outstanding photographers were on display there the day I did much of my Christmas shopping in Putnam. But I wound up buying a pair of earrings in the shop from a jewelry maker set up there for the holidays. Actually she custom-made them for me as I sat in the coffee shop eating a gargantuan piece of double-chocolate cake and browsing through a biography of Norman Rockwell I found on a bookshelf. I’d tried to find some antique jewelry I thought my wife Jan would like, but I kept getting distracted by antiques that caught my interest, including a framed architect’s rendering of the bank building in Attleboro, Mass., where my father had worked a half-century before. I also tried on a couple of military overcoats that fortunately didn’t quite fit. If one had, I’m afraid I would have bought it, for no good reason I can think of.

For Valentine’s Day and Jan’s birthday we’re going out to dinner at the upscale restaurant and then attending a play after at the lovely old theatre on Front Street. The community players who perform there do a surprisingly nice job. The theatre is in the midst of a renewal. I’m sure though, they’ll preserve the giant Coke sign adorning the side of the building.

Dinner and a show. I almost wish we had an old DeSoto to drive on our night out. I’m going to have to work on that.

In the meantime, you should work on taking a ride into Putnam. There are plenty of other great venues to explore I didn’t even mention. And plenty of other old downtowns that have their own appeal. Have you wandered through one near you?