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A great tribute to Cora Putnam Hale

Thank you to Jean White Dickerson, who wrote this fantastic article about the woman who founded the Social Center in 1939. We are re-posting from the History and Legends of the Adirondacks Facebook page.


CORA PUTNAM HALE – To many residents in the Elizabethtown area, the name Cora Putnam Hale is well known. and the lady herself, legendary! This is her story.


Cora Putnam was born on August 12, 1861, the daughter of Herbert Asa Putnam (1832 – 1921) and Celintha T. Gates Putnam (1832 – 1898). Cora and her older sister, Helen Cordelia Putnam (1857 – 1951) were both born in Stockton, Minnesota. The family lived in the mid-west for only a short time, returning to Elizabethtown in 1863 to live in the brick house across the road from the Egglefield Ford Garage/Social Center (where Barney & Betty Cross lived). The Putnam parents lived in Elizabethtown until 1897, then moved to San Diego, CA where they lived and died.


Cora and her sister, Helen, both attended Vassar College. While her sister took up medicine. Cora studied art. After studying at Vassar, Cora then studied in New York City and France. Both sisters were interested in the outdoors, gardening, birds and the public welfare.


Cora Hale was always a very community-minded person and was interested in all the institutions that contributed to the betterment of the community. She assisted in the Boy Scouts, the library, her church (Congregational), and countless individuals. She was devoted to her church, serving as president of the Ladies Aid and as a Sunday School teacher. Plus, for many years Mrs. Hale donated the Bibles presented to the Sunday School children.


In 1896, Cora May Putnam married Harry Hale (October 3, 1852 – July 2, 1920) of Elizabethtown, the son of Robert Stafford Hale and Loving Hale. Mr. Hale was trained as an attorney but was an invalid for much of his life. As a young man, he suffered a tobogganing accident that left him with a serious head injury.


Mrs. Hale is best known for her gift of the Elizabethtown Social Center which she donated and endowed. She purchased the “Old Livingston House,” located across the street from her childhood home, a fitting choice for the Social Center “as it was in this house, in front of the fireplace, that Cora got her first spanking!!” The house was then owned by Mr. and Mrs. Augustus C. Hand Livingston.

The Social Center was incorporated on September 25, 1939. On November 10, the doors were open to the public for the first time. The original plans called for an opening celebration at which Mrs. Hale would preside. However, because of poor health, she was unable to attend. The Social Center opened without a ceremony under the leadership of its first director, Mr. Ira Wyman.



Cora Putnam Hale remained actively interested in the concerns of the Social Center. She served on the Board of Directors and held Board meetings at her home whenever her health would allow until her death on May 11, 1946. She is buried in the Riverside Cemetery, Elizabethtown, NY.

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