Putnam Underground Railroad Education Center (P.U.R.E. Center)

The PURE Center is situated in the heart of the Putnam Historic District. Putnam was settled in 1801, by pioneers from New England, and strong abolitionists and it was also home to freed blacks. Putnam became part of Zanesville in 1872.  Across the street from the PURE Center is the George Guthrie House, a documented stop on the Underground Railroad. Diagonally across from the PURE Center is the Putnam Presbyterian Church where Reverend William Beecher (brother of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” author Harriet Beecher Stowe) preached antislavery sermons. Another significant figure, A. A. Guthrie, the President of the Ohio Abolitionist Society, lived one block away.

The PURE Center preserves local and national history and serves as a testimony to the love, cooperation, and faith that characterizes the history of Zanesville. The Center’s services include a 17-station wireless computer lab, a 500 volume library collection about the Underground Railroad and Abolitionist movement, and a museum with artifacts from Africa and the Civil War Era.