The Anchorage Postcard

This photograph of the Anchorage was taken in April of 2015. The angle of this shot was captured from the front of Harmar place on a rainy day. When viewed closely you can actually see the rain falling in the photograph. This is one of the many historical buildings that you can find in Marietta, Ohio. Douglas Putnam got rich in the years leading up to the Civil War by investing in real estate and the first railroad to connect Parkersburg and Marietta. He used his money to build a spacious home for his second bride, Eliza Whipple Putnam. The Tuscan-style villa on Putnam Avenue (originally called Putnam Place) took ten years to build and cost $65,000--a huge sum at the time. When it was finally completed, Eliza moved in and promptly died from heart disease at the age of 53, on September 9, 1862. But some say she loved the house so much that her spirit never left. Over the years it has passed from owner to owner. Various families have called it home at different times. A nursing home used the complex, including the mansion, to house patients; it was at this time that it acquired the name the Christian Anchorage, because of its distinctive, anchor-shaped driveway. Even after the nursing home sold it to Marietta Memorial Hospital (who then sold it to the Washington County Historical Society for one dollar), people continued to refer to it as The Anchorage.