Bennington residents learn to cope without their local hospital for nearly a year.

On June 22, 1932, fire ravaged the Henry W. Putnam Hospital in Bennington. The hospital had been serving patients in southwestern Vermont for fourteen years, and was critically important.

Prior to the hospital's opening, people from the Bennington area in need of healthcare had to take a train to either North Adams, Massachusetts or Troy, New York. Henry W. Putnam Sr. and Jr. recognized the community’s need, and donated the money necessary to construct the $85,000, 35-bed hospital that would bear their name.

The fire on this day was so extensive, the hospital would not reopen for 11 months.

Image courtesy the Vermont Historical Society.

June Archives | June 23