Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/history/)
From 1929 to 1935, the Manitook Hotel, and guest cottages on the west shore of the lake, was a thriving, bustling place. Tourists from New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and many other states visited to canoe, swim, play tennis, fish, hunt, and enjoy a vacation in Granby.
For the past two years the Salmon Brook Historical Society has been restoring the Captain Sadoce Wilcox House and Lyman Wilcox Barn in West Granby.
September is the time of year when the small-town fairs begin around Connecticut. For the early 20th century resident, the Granby Fair was the biggest thrill of the year.
In its first 75 years, the Salmon Brook Historical Society has had three amazing curators. I have written about Eva Dewey saving Granby history when she stored most of the files, genealogical files, and artifacts in her house while the SBHS was first renovating its campus. I also have written about how Carol Laun helped transform the society as we know it today and became our town historian and educator. Both Eva and Carol followed in the footsteps of our first curator, Ethel Linnell.
The Salmon Brook Historical Society (SBHS) participated in Granby’s first Juneteenth celebration with six interactive signs that revealed some of the early history of Granby’s Black residents.
Originally published in June 1988.
I say it simply—unashamed and unabashed—I love this town.
On graduation day, high school seniors receive their diplomas and head off to college or the workforce. Each high school diploma has three signatures: the superintendent, the principal and the chairperson of the Board of Education. For some Granby graduates, those signatures will look familiar because many had a parent serve as the chairperson of the board, including myself.
Originally published May 1987: If the words “Historical Society” evoke an image of grim reverential silence and dull stodgy people—you have not visited the Salmon Brook Historical on a Thursday morning.
On Sept. 21, 1938, a major hurricane wreaked havoc along the eastern seaboard, especially in New England. Connecticut lost over 680 lives from this storm and Hartford was flooded so badly that the Park River was buried under the city so such an occurrence would not happen again. After the 1938 hurricane, the Granby school district, along with many others, had students record what they remembered from the storm. Below are excerpts of how students who attended the one-room schools in Granby described the 1938 hurricane.
The Neighborhood News was a weekly Granby newspaper, which ran from 1939 to 1943. It was produced by two children, Buddy Pendleton and Mary Teale. Buddy, age 6, was the editor, and Mary, age 6, the assistant editor, although sometimes her older sister, Christine, age 11, would fill in for her.