Granville Then & Now – April 21, 2022

Return of Scarlotta’s eagerly awaited

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

An iconic Granville business will soon return. The village car hop on Quaker Street in Granville, called MacDaddy’s in recent times, was recently sold by Andy McEachron to the Barlow family, who are Wes, Laura, Payton and Matthew. They are renaming it back to Scarlotta’s Car Hop and plan to revive the business with many classic favorites. They have been at work renovating and remodeling the building. An opening is anticipated by May 1. Congratulations to the Barlows on their new endeavor. Granville eagerly awaits the return of Scarlotta’s.

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Easter weekend was quiet. As always, there was no school on Good Friday. However, the changes in business hours seen some years ago are now something of the past. Gone are days of stores and businesses closing their doors from 12 to 3 p.m. or just dimming their lights and shutting the window shades. Saturday looked like any other Saturday, and the same could be said of early Easter Sunday. However, traffic began to increase by midday, as people went to and from the Easter services, and then on to Easter dinner. After that, the roads were very sparse of cars, with little to no traffic.

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There’s quite some road work coming to the Granville area this summer. Main Street will have sidewalk work, and then the street will be repaved. North Street will be repaved from Main Street up to near the driveway for the mansion. Pine Street will be repaved from North Street to near the end of the row of houses on the street at the top of the hill, which is the south end of last year’s repaving project. The Church Street bridge replacement project also will be finished; the final components include paving the wear course layer and replacing the gravel with a proper concrete sidewalk. Some road work has already begun. The town of Granville has begun grading its several dirt roads, and the town of Pawlet, Vermont was also doing the same last week.

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New crosswalk signs need to be placed on Main Street at the crossings for the rail trail, in front of the post office, and at the wide crossing from North Street to Church Street. It is hoped that this may be done this year as part of the sidewalk work that will precede repaving Granville’s Main Street. In recent years there has been an issue with cars driving through Main Street and not stopping for people crossing the street at the crosswalks. Some pedestrians have even stood close to the white “edgelines” of the road, and several cars go by anyway without stopping; these people weren’t able to cross the street until someone finally stopped, or there was a break in traffic. The excuse of not seeing pedestrians may have made sense when there were trees on the street, but that no longer applies. More crosswalk signage will help drivers realize there are crosswalks, that they should slow down and be aware of those who may walk on them, and that they must stop for someone who is standing on the edge of one waiting to cross the street. This would help those who frequent Main Street to cross the street when necessary.