After the columns were submitted, I was informed that this year, the December 21 and 28 issues will be combined into a single issue published December 21, 2023.
Neither installment made the Granville Sentinel this week. Therefore, the business recap writeup intended for December 28 will be reworked as the first column of the new year, for January 4, 2024.
I am making an important announcement regarding the "Granville Then and Now" column.
Back in October I made a post regarding the discontinuation of the column in September, formerly published in the Granville Sentinel from July 2020 to September 2023. I told the story of my column, and how I lost my way due to unforeseen and unwanted pressures made against me and the column I worked so hard to build up over three years, which made me decide that I had had enough.
Upon ending the column in September, I received requests to resume writing the column, including from people at the Granville Sentinel. I received more requests in October, including an email from someone high up in the Sentinel. I thought on it, and discussed the matter, but due to other things that I caught wind of, I said that I would only resume the column if it was assured that the Granville Sentinel bound book collection stayed right where it was (and is), in the Granville town historian office.
In December, I sent an email reiterating that I would resume the column, so long as the bound books stayed where they are. The proposal was accepted on the 12th, and as of today I have already written the two traditional entries that sum up the year: the Christmas greetings entry, and the yearly business recap entry. These are anticipated to be in the December 21 and 28, 2023 issues respectively.
The "plans" mentioned in the October announcement, have turned out to be utilizing both a resumed "Granville Then and Now" column, as well as an online blog site. Whether this site will continue here or on a different platform, remains to be seen.
I thank everyone again for their support to "Then and Now" in the three and a half years it originally ran, and hope and ask for your support and encouragement going forward with the resurrected column.
Erik Pekar
An index of the online writings column published here from time to time.
September 12, 2022 - New cars for 1957 model year from car dealerships in Granville and vicinity
December 10, 2023 - Fair Haven Outlet was open Thanksgiving Day in late 1960s
By Erik Pekar
For some years through 2019, many stores and chains were open early morning of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Some stores took it further to the change of day at midnight on Black Friday, and others even opened the evening or afternoon of Thanksgiving Day.
Changes in 2020 and the years since have resulted in the return of more sensible morning openings on Black Friday, and the return of peaceful Thanksgivings with stores closed.
This change was received warmly by many of all ages, but the long-timers who remember "the good old days" would have especially liked it.
With that in mind, we present a rare exception to the "closed on Thanksgiving Day" rule from the "good old days".
This excerpt of an advertisement for the Fair Haven Outlet in the Nov. 27, 1969 issue of the Granville Sentinel clearly reads the following: "Open Thanksgiving Day - 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. - All items on sale beginning Thurs. thru Sunday (while quantities last) Open Sunday noon to 6 p.m."
The Fair Haven Outlet was located in Fair Haven, Vt., on Prospect Street (Route 4A), on the north side of the road next to the Castleton River, just west of the corner with Main Street (Route 22A).
Other than the anomaly of being open on Thanksgiving Day, this Fair Haven Outlet ad is otherwise the typical discount store ad of days gone by. Discounted pricing of gift items included a slinky for 49 cents, a rhyme top for 49 cents, the game Yahtzee for 49 cents, and a Tonka mighty loader for $4.99.
There also was a mini-ad for appearances by Santa. Again, there is the unusual event of Santa seeing hours including time on Thanksgiving Day.
The Fair Haven Outlet conducting business on Thanksgiving Day was the exception and not the rule; most businesses in that era closed for Thanksgiving, and reopened on Black Friday with regular business hours.
October 1, 2023
An important announcement has to be made about the "Granville Then and Now" column. The column was discontinued last month, entirely by my choice.
For the past few years, I have written various history articles and columns for the Granville Sentinel. From April 2019 to April 2020, I wrote several articles that appeared from time to time. These were of a primarily historical nature. During this time I offered to write a weekly column, but was turned down for various reasons.
This would be overcome in July 2020, when the "Granville Then and Now" column made its debut. From the start, I set out with the plan of writing a column much like that of Morris Rote-Rosen's "Main Street" column of over 40 years prior. As a result, the column featured historical topics, current events, commentary, and occasionally quotes on the street.
Around the end of the year I had a consistent set of features to write. In December I wrote of Christmas greetings from Granville businesses of yesteryear. I also wrote the yearly business review, which had an accurate run-through of the business changes which had occurred in Granville throughout the year, and supplanted the sometimes inaccurate summary done by the reporters in their "year in review" feature spread.
In the new year, I ran through the "feel good" events that occurred in the previous year, and eventually, ran through interesting topics that I wrote about in the column in the previous year.
In the column's three year run, I only ran a single series - the three part history of Granville's Masonic lodge in the issues from July 22 to August 5, 2021. There were several others planned, but these did not come to fruition. The closest to publication of the series in planning were those about the Memorial Chime Clock, and another on local option and Prohibition.
For much of the column's time in 2023, I wrote the column more or less like it was a "Granville - A Century Ago" column. This was due to factors necessitating such a shift, including from within the paper itself. Editorial influence attempted to discourage me from writing about businesses as current event sections. There was also the occasional tampering with articles, such as the March 23, 2023 column where a section had quotes and were removed before publication. Friction on the current events led to finding the path of least resistance, resulting in "Granville Then and Now" having lots of "then" and little "now" in 2023.
Another situation is the major changes at the Granville Sentinel in the years since I started writing, which also corresponds roughly to the years since the paper was sold out of the Manchester family. John may not have been perfect, and had his share of dislike and condemnation, but he did know how to run a small town community newspaper that actually focused on the Granville area.
The new owners attempted improvements early on, and some actually seemed to make some headway, but by 2022 the papers were being run in the old style of the new owners, not an entirely new style altogether. In those intervening years the Sentinel has seen less and less local advertisers, with only five or so in a count from last month. There is very little local news. At the same time, they have attempted to change their focus to be about the central and southern portions of Washington County - basically Granville and everything south - despite not being sold there, and that area already being served by two newspapers (The Eagle and The Greenwich Journal-Press).
Being the only locally based writer in all the Sentinel by the column's start, I received scads of criticism over the years about the Sentinel - not for "Granville Then and Now" but about the other things. I sent some points their way, but others were withheld for there was no point in attempting to change the direction their hearts were set on.
By this summer (2023), I realized that my continued writing of "Granville Then and Now" was an implicit gesture tantamount to supporting the direction the new owners are taking the Granville Sentinel. From these factors, of hearing increased complaints, and seeing few and far between local advertisers, and knowing I couldn't write the column I had been writing two years earlier with a proper balance of history and current events, and realizing the Sentinel is in decline, I made the decision to discontinue writing the column. I considered wrapping up the column with reflections and predictions and other things, but realized that attempts would be made to change my mind if the discontinuation was figured out in advance.
I decided the week of September 7 to end the column and any other feature I was writing at the time. Nothing was submitted for the week of September 14, and the receiver of column submissions was notified.
I thank everyone who supported the Granville Then and Now column and gave a good word for it during its three year run.
I am contemplating plans for more writing, but for now, this blog website will get more use.
Erik Pekar
By Erik Pekar
The new school year starts this week, and turning the pages back, we find it was also starting at this time of year in 1923. School quality was improving, as evidenced from this article that appeared in the September 7, 1923 issue of the Granville Sentinel: "The Granville schools opened Tuesday with 170 students un the high school and 730 in the grades in the Church street, Mason house and Annex schools. The public should know that the board of education is making a very close study of the school work. Under the determined efforts of Dr. Munson, president of the board, the standard of the work has been very markedly increased. In presenting the diplomas last June at graduation, he called attention to the fact that every student who was being graduated had completed 72 regents' counts. It has been a long time since this high standard was reached.
"Last year a complete survey was made by experts from the state Educational department and many recommendations were made. This year it is expected that all of these will be complied with. The regents' standards of the state have been adopted by the board and under the direction of Prof. Snyder the four years of high school work is being rapidly brought to a comprehensive and progressive course of study. Post graduate work for the teachers has been very strongly suggested by the board and has been very favorably responded to by the teachers who have the proper professional spirit.
"The coming year more attention is to be paid to the supervision in the grades and especially to the question of uniformity and correlation. In this work Dr. Munson is showing intelligent and effective work. He is seeking efficiency and not catering to sentiment.
"The board has made a study of the school requirements in Granville and the Sentinel bespeaks the support of the public for this effort to give Granville the progressive and well rounded school system which we should have."
+++
Pawlet's local-personal mention column had several items of interest.
A nonagenarian is honored with a birthday commemoration: "Sunday, September 2, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A.C. Mason, a party of friends and relatives assembled to honor Mrs. Mason's father, John Alexander, who will be ninety-two years of age September 11. Mr. Alexander is and has always been one of Pawlet's staunchiest citizens, with a kindly word and pleasant smile for all, an exceptionally retentive memory and a most interesting man to visit with regarding conditions of the early days. He is an intelligent man who has read a great deal and kept up with the times. Those present at the anniversary besides the honored guest and Mr. and Mrs. Mason were Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Mound, a daughter of Mrs. Alexander, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mound and daughter Pauline of Poultney, Mr. and Mrs. Rollin Alexander of Pawlet, Mrs. Mary Hatch Jones and daughter Florence of Granville and Clifford Mound, Mrs. Eugene Howe, the Misses Ida and Nellie Howe of Glens Falls."
A business change was made: "Florence Lackey has disposed of her store, and is now presiding over the central wire at the telephone office."
An item of visitors: "Mr. and Mrs. Charles Shinn, who have been in town several weeks, left for home Sunday going down with Mr. Shinn, sr., in his car." We wonder if they were any relation to Charlie Shinn, the original owner of the Station Restaurant in Pawlet.
Pawlet students were entering high school: "Julia and Eleanor Foote entered the Granville high school Tuesday and Edward Leach and Cecil Dodge plan to go to Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, when the season begins." It is interesting to see that, even in 1923, there were some locals on the Vermont side who passed up the great opportunity of attending the local Granville High School and took the long trip to Manchester.
+++
Some of the items being sold by means of the Sentinel's classifieds in 1923: Curiously, there were not classified beyond "for sale" and "wanted". In the first group of classifieds, most of the entries were for sale, including the following: "horse, wagon, harness and sleigh"; "fumed oak davenport and a golden oak parlor table"; "square piano"; "pair of horses"; "six grade Holstein cows"; "15 hp IHC engine, 9 hp auto engine, Saxon six automobile and 12 good cows"; "nearly new silo, 14x24"; registered Holstein bull for heavy service at my farm in Hartford"; "a two family house, hardwood floors, all modern improvements, garage, all newly painted, also extra lot"; "good, gray team", "Empire milking machine, little used, at less than half price," "Premier cream separator, almost new"; "three houses with all modern improvements on North and Pine streets"; "demonstration car Hupmobile, 4-passenger coupe"; "house with modern improvements including electric lights and a good barn"; "the property of the late Ellen Morrissey on Pine street, nine-room house and one acre of land"; "one car, Guernsey grade, five years old", "five ewes, pure blood Shropshire", "ten R.I. Red pullets, hatched early"; "two registered yearling bulls ready for service", "3 year old Percheron colt"; "one Green Mountain silo 10x28 with 4 foot extension red cedar hip roof"; "New bungalow in a fine location on shore of Lake St. Catherine."
Most of the items above either would be easily recognized as cars, bulls, silos, real estate, or other items if they were classified today, even with the same text. It is unlikely that one would see farm animals, or car names such as Saxon or Hupmobile, in a 2023 classified ad. On the other hand, one may not know the "oak davenport" referred to a wooden desk, and we have no idea what was being referenced by the "good, gray team".
+++
Returning to the village, we notice that a water advisory was issued: "Water in the river from which the village of Granville obtains its water supply is very low and at such times is contaminated to a greater degree than when the supply is normal. On account of the prevalence of diarrhoea, stomach and intestinal disturbances it is advisable to boil all water used for drinking or culinary purposes. – D.C. McKenzie, Health Officer." This is not an issue today, as the Village of Granville has not used a drop of river water for over 80 years, instead utilizing wells. It should also be noted that in 1923 there was only a primitive sewer system used by Main Street and a few surrounding streets, and without any treatment plant. A modern sewer system was installed in most of the village in the late 1920s, with expansion to cover the entire village being completed by 1970.
+++
The low water in the Mettowee in Granville was also affecting the river downstream, as evidenced from this item in the Truthville column from the same issue: "The Adirondack Light & Power company's plant has closed for the present owing to low water in the river."
+++
Concluding this week's column, summer is coming to a close, and in 1923 the summer season at Lake Saint Catherine was also near its close. People were to leave soon: "Most of the cottagers, who have children in school, will leave this week for home." Dances were coming to a close as well: "The Forest House and Idylwild Park have held the last dances of the season."
By Erik
Pekar
Going back
to the August 24, 1923 issue of the Granville Sentinel, we find that the water
carnival mentioned last week had been held, and was a success: "The first
annual water carnival staged by the Lake St. Catherine association was
witnessed by a record crowd Wednesday afternoon. President Marden and Charles
Kitchell of the recreation committee said they were going to 'put Lake St.
Catherine on the map' and they did it. The notice of the event was short but,
nevertheless, many boats were superbly decorated and the crowd present showed
that all roads led that afternoon to the lake. Hundreds of cars were parked
about the Forest House and Idylwild Park grounds and the spectators constituted
one of the largest assemblages ever witnessed at the lake. The Granville band
furnished music. It was feared that the heavy wind in the early part of the day
might interfere with the success of the occasion but weather conditions
improved by noon. The feature of the day was the parade of decorated boats for
which prizes were awarded... The judges of the decorated boat parade were Myron
Roberts, F.W. Barrett, O.W. McShane, D.D. Woodard and H.J. Stevens, who had a
most difficult task in deciding on the winners, as great merit was noticeable
in each and every entry."
Prizes were
awarded in several fields, including decorations of motor boats, canoes,
rowboats; for races of motor driven rowboats, canoe singles and doubles,
rowboat singles and doubles; swimming races for boys and girls, split to under
10, 10 to 15, and over 15 years of age; bowling, men and women; dancing, men
and women.
Sponsors of
prizes included Rudd Electric, Granville Sentinel, F. and B. Center Company,
Ellis and Jones, Weinberg Hardware Company, F.G. Barrett, McHenry and Roberts,
Lawler's Market, Hayes' Market, Bascom's Furniture Store, Mrs. Lewis' grocery,
Olson's Ice Cream Parlor, Mason's Gift Shop, Granville Candy Kitchen, Minch's
New York Store, Lasher's Drug Store, C.L. Streeter, B. Goldberg, McShane's Drug
Store, A. and P. store, N. Goldberg and Son, Bastedenbeck's cigar store,
Quinn's Hardware store, Granville Candy Land, Rigali and Bernardini, Williams'
Bakery, McDonald's store, The Ladies Store, Haskins' Drug Store, Craig Weir,
Wilson Clothing store, Adams and Snyder, Granville Electric and Gas company,
Sweet's shoe store, Bertilino's Fruit Store, Evans' Drug Store.
Many of the
businesses were based in Granville. Some were in Poultney, such as McShane's
Pharmacy and Bertilino's. The Lewis grocery mentioned above was likely Bertha
Lewis' general store in Wells.
+++
A Granville
business modernized part of their business: "Warden H. Lasher, the Rexall
druggist, has added a new National electric cash register to his store, which
makes it one of the most up-to-date drug stores in Northern New York. Mr.
Lasher is awake to the times and his growing business."
+++
Some
farmers were wondering about a pest: "The Sentinel recently referred to
the disappearance of the potato bug. Several farmers have written the Sentinel
asking that it present another question: what has become of the grasshoppers?
It is claimed that no one has seen a grasshopper this season. But there is
always another bug to take the place of those that disappear. Now it is a grub
that is destroying the corn and potato crop."
+++
A recent
post on social media by a Granville-affiliated page contained a brief three
paragraph history of Granville in 1920. While some elements are accurate,
others are wrong and contrary to the historical record.
The brief
history was written as follows: "In 1920, Granville had a population of
approximately 2,600 people. The downtown area featured a number of small
businesses, including general stores, bakeries and business shops.
"The
Granville Theater was a popular entertainment venue, (which) along with local
churches and civic provided community events.
"Transportation
was limited to horse and buggy, automobiles, and the trolley system that ran
from Granville to nearby communities like Whitehall and Rutland, Vermont."
Breaking
down the brief history, the first paragraph is mostly accurate. There is scant
record of a bakery operating in Granville in 1920, but there was indeed one.
The May 21, 1920 issue of the Sentinel had an item in a local mention column:
"Mr. Glass of Schuylerville, who made several trips to Granville with
regard to opening a large bakery, has decided not to come. Granville already
has an excellent bakery." The June 25, 1920 issue had in the personal
mention column the following item: "John Davies of Elm street has a
position in the Granville bakery for the summer. Thomas O. Jones and Sons of
Middle Granville had an advertisement in the July 9, 1920 issue mentioning they
were selling "Granville Bakery Bread". The bakery itself did not
advertise in the Sentinel that year, if ever at all.
The general
idea of second paragraph is accurate in that the theaters and churches provided
events to be frequented by community members. There was, however, no business
called the "Granville Theater" in Granville in 1920, a name only used
here by a country music venue in the early 1980s. Granville did have two
theaters in 1920. The Pastime Theater was located on the lot where Heavenly
Hair is now. The Pember Theater was on the site of the municipal parking lot at
the corner of Main and Church Streets, with frontage to Main Street. The latter
was earlier known as the Pember Opera House, and was often used to house
conventions, regional meetings of civic groups and fraternal organizations, and
hosting the Granville high school's yearly graduation commencement program.
The third
paragraph is somewhat accurate, in that there were automobiles, but horses and
buggies still were common sights around Granville. The claim of an operating
trolley is outright wrong, however. There were proposals to route a trolley
from Whitehall to Granville, and another on to Lake Saint Catherine and on to
Poultney. None of the lines were built, and no trolley ever reached Granville.
The nearest trolley line actually built was one connecting Poultney and
Rutland.
The inaccurate brief history of Granville in 1920 has no bearing on the page on which it was posted. It is perplexing how the social media manager could have mixed up the information. It is possible that some of the information could have been for another Granville other than ours in New York, such as Ohio or Massachusetts. We hope that in the future that the social media manager does more due diligence in their research of local history of Granville, New York for their Granville connected page.
