Granby Drummer (https://granbydrummer.com/category/history/page/3/)
As winter begins to thaw, the earth slowly reveals itself again after months beneath the snow. Driving through Granby in early spring, it’s impossible not to notice the barns. They rise behind stone walls and quiet fields, their red siding weathered by decades of New England seasons.
(Part 1 of 2) There is a room in the Preservation Barn of the Salmon Brook Historical Society (SBHS) that might be well considered the “heart of Granby history.”
Last month I wrote about Granby’s more recent doctors, William Dwyer to Alfred Weed. They were modern doctors who had learned the principles of germ theory. They understood that microscopic organisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi cause disease. However, that knowledge was relatively new. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, doctors saw medicine differently.
The Salmon Brook Historical Society is seeking a volunteer curator to help preserve and share Granby’s rich history. Established in 1945, the society is an all-volunteer, membership-based, nonprofit organization located at 208 Salmon Brook Street.
In the last two months I had to find a new doctor. The physician I had been seeing moved his practice from Avon to New Britain. I made the drive once, but realized it was too far to travel for routine care.
Granby Manufacturing Co. on Hartford Ave. was organized in 1873. It later housed a store, post office and ice cream parlor, and was called the Cowles Block. Beman Hardware was in this building until 1972. When the new store was built behind the store, the old building was razed.
With the holidays fast approaching and having friends over for holiday parties, there may be thoughts about what gifts to get friends or loved ones. Most towns like folks to shop locally, which is a sound investment in those communities.
As Granby prepares to honor America’s 250th anniversary, we remember one of our own: Captain Samuel Hayes, a Revolutionary War veteran whose service and legacy remain woven into the fabric of our town’s history.
Colonel Henry Knox left Boston 250 years ago this month with orders from General Washington to retrieve artillery for the Continental Army from the captured British fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, New York.
Fifty years ago an iconic landmark, the Loomis Bros. Store in the center of Granby was torn down and with it a piece of the town’s sense of place and history disappeared.