Category: Granville

Old Meeting House, Granville (1802)

by Dan//Churches, Federal, Granville, Public Buildings

Granville‘s first Congregational meeting house was built in 1747 and replaced by the current Old Meeting House in 1802. The gable-roofed structure, which lost its steeple in a gale in 1840, was remodeled in 1890. The present front columns were most likely added in 1862 or during the 1890 remodeling. The first permanent town hall was built in 1927. In 1937, the First Congregational Church is joined with the Baptist Church to form the Granville Federated Church. Since 1976, the Old Meeting House has been owned by the town and the restored building is rented out for various events. Continue reading “Old Meeting House, Granville (1802)”

J.M. Gibbons Store (1934)

by Dan//Colonial Revival, Commercial, Granville

This week we’ll be looking at buildings in Granville, which is in Hampton County on the border with Connecticut. A local landmark is the Granville Country Store, famous for its cheese. John Murray Gibbons developed the recipe and aging process for what is known as Granville Cellar Aged Cheddar. At sixteen he had begun working in the Granville village store and a year later he owned the business. In 1851, he opened a new building for his store in Granville Center, which was also a post office (he served as postmaster) and had a school on the second floor. The store burned down in 1884 and was replaced by a new building. When that structure burned in 1934, it was replaced by the current Colonial Revival-style building, which has a pedimented gable and semicircular window. J.M. Gibbons Sons has had many owners over the years, but is seen by the people of Granville as “their” store.

Granville Public Library (1902)

by Dan//Granville, Libraries, Romanesque Revival

The libraries designed by Hartford architect George Keller are considered by some to be the high points of his career. Like the libraries he had designed earlier for the Connecticut communities of Norfolk (1888) and Ansonia (1892), Keller’s plan for the Granville Public Library is in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The building, which opened in 1902, features a rubble foundation, yellow brick construction with red sandstone, round tower and slate hip roof. Keller may have been influenced by the design of the library in Shelton, Connecticut, designed by Charles T. Beardsley, which also used yellow brick and was in turn influenced by Keller’s Ansonia Library. The Granville Library was founded after Milton B. Whitney of Westville, originally from Granville, donated $5,000, a sum which was added to by donations solicited by the women of the Granville Literary Club.