Built in 1648. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The General Israel Putnam House in Danvers, Massachusetts, United States, is a historic First Period house recorded in the National Register of Historic Places. The house is also sometimes known as the Thomas Putnam House after Lt.”
Wikipedia article General Israel Putnam House, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 350 National Register listings in Essex County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1648 · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Essex County.
National Register reference number.76000235- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The ground it stands on
190,092 words
The chapter on Danvers Town in South Danvers Wizard Newspaper, 1865, published 1865 names Danvers. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
Whereas, works are now being commenced ; by the Salem and Danvers Aqueduct Company that will, if allowed to be completed, divert ; from the inhabitants of this town a supply of water that was the origin, and is now one of the principal supports of our moet important i and flourishing manufactures, i
Reeolved, That a committee of five persons j be appointed, with full power* to take such j measures as they shall consider expedient to ; prevent the further diversion of water from the . sources of Tapley's Brook ; and also to do all i in their power to protect the inhabitants of the j town from the encroachments of all parties in their attempts to benefit the Salem and Dan¬ vers Aqueduct Company at the expense of, and to the detriment of the business of South Danvers.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 105 fires within 5 miles of Putnam, Gen. Israel, House between
2003 and 2020, burning about 319 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Recreation and ceremony
29
Debris and open burning
21
Smoking
19
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
16
Equipment and vehicle use
7
Misuse of fire by a minor
5
Fireworks
3
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
Other causes
1
Arson/incendiarism
1
Natural
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 6,955 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Putnam, Gen. Israel, House between 1800 and
1975: 2,725 Animalia, 2,458 Plantae, 1,071 Fungi, 330 Unrecorded, 239 Chromista, 104 Bacteria, 28 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A B. Proper, A H HIGGINSON, A. A. Eaton and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
9 workings within 5 miles of Putnam, Gen. Israel, House: 4 past producers, 3 plants, 2 producers.
5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Zirconium, Thorium. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Danvers, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1993 and 2018: 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
5,523 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The General Israel Putnam House is located on 3-3/acres of land in the town of Danvers. It lies on a cloverleaf-shaped parcel of land at the intersection of two highways and a connecting ramp. The highways were purposely located in a way that would preserve the house on its original site. The General Israel Putnam House is a two-story frame structure. The original 1648 portion has a gable roof and an end chimney and forms the rear or north portion of the present dwelling. The 1744 addition, which forms the front or south portion of the house, has a gambrel roof and center chimney. The center doorway projects slightly from the front facade to create a vestibule entry. The door has sidelights, double pilasters on each side, and a molded cornice, above which is a small balustrade.
A one-story frame kitchen, added in the early nineteenth century, adjoins the north side of the 1648 structure. In 1831 the roof of the 1648 saltbox was raised to provide two additional rooms on the second floor and a full attic in the 1648 saction. At this point the roof became a gable. The house has a stone foundation and complete basements except under the west section of the 1744 structure. The windows of the oldest section have six-over-nine lights on the first floor and six- over-six on the second. In the 1744 section, the lights are nine-over-nine except six- over-nine in the two attic windows. The two 1831 attic windows are nine-over-six while the later kitchen wing has six windows of varying size and shape.
Occupying about half of the premises and separated from the house by a stone wall, is a candy manufacturing firm.
/ARCHITECT STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The General Israel Putnam House is significant as the birthplace of General Israel Putnam and the only surviving structure associated with his name. The house is also significant because it has been owned by eleven successive generations of the Putnam family. During the entire 327 years of its existence, the residents of the house have earned their livelihood, in whole or in part,, from the land belonging with this house. The General Israe1 Putnam House was the birthplace and boyhood home (1718-1738) of Israel Putnam, American folk hero and a major general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. During the French and Indian Wars, Putnam became a legendary figure because of his amazing and daring exploits as a scout and Indian fighter.
But his greatest popularity came during the American Revolution. "Old Put," as the 57-year-old was affectionately known throughout New England, was a leading spirit in planning for the Battle of Bunker Hill, and during the fight itself he was everywhere on the field. It was Putnam who gave to Prescott's men the famous command: "Do not fire until you see the whites of their éyes." Washington realized Putnam's popularity as a folk hero and appointed him one of the first four major generals of the Conti- nental Army. Iater in the war, Putnam played a controversial role in the Battle of long Island where he had command of 7000 troops in . that disaster..
Several times after that, through stub- bornness or good intentions, Putnam's obedience of Washington's orders to send rein- Drcements had adverse effects on the Continental Army's winning abilities. Putnam's dilatoriness in the Highlands and his apparent unfitness for high command resulted in a court of inquiry, by which he was later exonerated.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76000235, 19 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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