HOULTON, Maine — An iconic Houlton dwelling that served as the homestead for one of the town’s most venerable families has been demolished.
The Aaron and Mariah Putnam homestead, located at 121 North St., was torn down Dec. 11 after trustees for the property decided the building was simply too unsafe to leave standing.
Built in 1917, the two-story dwelling was the homestead for Aaron and Mariah Putnam and their children.
The Putnam House, located at 121 North St., was demolished Dec. 11 after the building was deemed unsafe. (Joseph Cyr | Houlton Pioneer Times)
“We have been trying to find a use for the building for a number of years now,” said Paul Callnan, one of the trustees for the charitable foundation. “We offered the property back to the Putnam family, to see if anyone wanted it. The problem was, the property simply required way too much to bring it up to code for liveable standards.”
Attempts to find a use for the property included gifting the building to the Putnam House senior center, but the building required far more renovations than that group could afford also.
Callnan estimated it would have cost upward of $250,000 to bring the building back to life after it sat vacant for many years.
“When you have a piece of property like that, there are liability issues,” Callnan said. “In some ways, the property was dangerous. It was patched together in a few places and parts of it were starting to come down.”
Over the years, homeless people have had to be removed from the property for fear of them getting injured or worse by the dilapidated building, he added.
“We really did not have any use for the property, so we decided the only safe option was to take it down,” Callnan said. “I understand people liked the property and the historical significance it held, but if someone had gone in there and gotten hurt it would have been a really bad thing for the trust.”
Callnan said everything that could be salvaged from the property had long since been removed. His hope is that now that the site is cleared, it may be more intriguing for someone looking to develop in that area.
