Events

Take a Stroll Through History

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This is the third Loomis Bros. Store building that did business in Granby center. The first one, in front of what is now Stony Hill Village, burned in 1877. The next was in a building the Loomis brothers owned on the east side of the street. The one in this picture was the biggest and best. It opened in 1891 and was torn down in 1975.

In this time of the pandemic, the Salmon Brook Historical Society has found a way to stay outdoors while sharing Granby’s history. Stroll Through Granby History is an opportunity to both walk and learn while being appropriately distanced from each other because it is all done outside.

Granby’s central historic district includes about 35 homes or buildings with known stories. From Oct. 2 to 29, the society invites people to stroll from the Salmon Brook Historical Society properties at 208 Salmon Brook Street north to the green and learn about town history as told by 32 of the houses.

In recognition of the 75th anniversary of the historical society, the society will place a temporary sign with a picture of the original house in each front yard. In addition to the picture, the posters will include a QR code. Walkers can learn about the history of the house and the people who lived in them by using the QR code on their smartphone or tablet.

What do you need before you begin? You need to go to the App Store on your phone or tablet and install a QR Code Reader. This is a no-cost app that will allow you to read the QR code on each sign. The QR code will then access the information about each house located on the Salmon Brook Historical Society website. 

221 Salmon Brook Street is the Smith-Cooley house. There were other houses at that location but the current one was built in 1854 by Orlando Smith. He was a prosperous farmer who also owned a sawmill on Bissell Brook in what is now McLean’s Game Refuge.
225 Salmon Brook Street was Dr. Pendleton’s Hospital. There was a house at this site in the 1800s. The current building was purchased in 1921 by Dr. Ernest Raymond Pendleton, and was a hospital from 1921 to 1928. Pendleton also developed a 27-hole golf course where Salmon Brook Park is now and, in 1932, he built “attractive and unique log cabins for summer homes” on what is now Pendleton Road.
235 Salmon Brook Street is the Jewett-Maltbie house. It is located at the corner of Salmon Brook Street and Copper Brook Circle, and was built about 1845 by the Jewett family. William Mills Maltbie, a prominent lawyer, owned the house and the land behind it for many years. He became Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court and was, at that time, the youngest man in the state to hold that office. Photos courtesy of the Salmon Brook Historical Society

Maps will also be available to be printed from the SBHS website —salmonbrookhistoricalsociety.com—and the house’s information and story will be available on the web page going forward.

None of this would have been possible without Carol Laun’s deep knowledge, Howard Berg’s efforts digitizing pictures, Ed Judge, Jay Harder and Madeline Catania of the Granby Camera Club, and web designer, Janice Gucciardi, from Jabberhead.

The society members are pretty excited about this project to get the information from inside the SBHS archives out into the community.

Stroll through Granby History – 2020

Starting west side, south end of Salmon Brook St., walking north

207 – Chapman house 

211 – Delia Church house

213 – Crocker house

221 – Smith-Cooley house

225 – Dr. Pendleton’s Hospital

227 – The Parsonage

229 – Jewett-Gillin house

231 – Jewett-Hotchkiss house

233 – Jewett-Smith-Cooley house

235 – Jewett-Maltbie house

239 – Bunce house

245 – James Lee Loomis house

251 – Colton house

255 – Gaines Hotel

259 – Loomis Store #1

261 – James Newton Loomis house

East side of Salmon Brook St., 

by the Town Green, walking south

4 East Granby Rd – Case house

2 Park Place – Granby Hotel & Avery house

On Town Green – Civil War Monument

258 – Loomis Bros. Store  #3

256 – Loomis Bros. Store #2 & Print Shop

254 – Holcomb-Shattuck house

252 – Asel Rice house

250 – Rev. T. Murphy house

248 – Library building and South Church

238 – Dennison Case house

234 – Samuel Benjamin’s church

230 – Cooley-Goddard house

226 – George Pettibone house

Salmon Brook Historical Society

208 – Weed-Enders house

208 – Abijah Rowe house

208 – Cooley School

This map is also available on the historical society’s website: salmonbrookhistoricalsociety.com