Granville Then & Now – March 17, 2022

Spring in sight as we dodge a snowstorm

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

Spring is only a week away, but one wouldn’t have thought so from the weather of the last week. A snow shower came through on Wednesday, coating the area with the fluffy white stuff. The next day was sunny and temperatures reached the high 40s, melting the new snow away.

Saturday was the real concern. Early estimates for local snowfall reached as high as 11 inches, with onset as early as Friday night. When the storm arrived, snowfall did not begin until well after daybreak. Although roads did get messy, and snow fell constantly through the day and into the afternoon, in the end the Granville area only had about 3-5 inches of snowfall. This will likely melt in the coming days, as temperatures are expected to reach the 60s.

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Another athletic merger will be happening with Granville. The Whitehall Board of Education approved merging boys soccer with Granville at its board meeting last week. Granville had evidently approved it at an earlier meeting. No uniform changes are to be made this year; players will wear Granville jerseys. Games and practices are to be held in Granville.

This is the third athletic merger to involve Granville and Whitehall in recent years. The districts had merged their cross-country programs in 2018. Combining the football programs was proposed as early as 2019, but complications and lack of specifics on how the combining would be accomplished prevented its approval at the time. A revised, true merger plan was proposed near the end of 2021, and was approved early this year. Last week’s approval of merging boys soccer makes for three merged sports teams with Granville and Whitehall.

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One of the more elusive pieces of Granville memorabilia is the “Game of Granville.” This was a board game put together in association with the Granville Area Chamber of Commerce in 1984. The intention was to promote area businesses, as well as use the proceeds from sales of the game to fund the Chamber. The program was already under development as early as May of 1984. The game was a customized version of a Monopoly clone, called “Wheeler Dealer.” Most versions of this game were called “The Game of (Town Name).” Local businesses and service organizations had spaces on the board available for purchase, like the businesses available on a Monopoly board. Other information on local municipal officials, schools, churches and places of interest were also planned to be included. Businesses were approached by Chamber members involved with the project; it is unknown if the businesses had to pay the Chamber an extra fee to get on the board. After all the spaces for businesses and organizations had been filled, the Chamber placed the order for the game to “Wheeler Dealer.”

The finished “Game of Granville” arrived in Granville in July 1984 and for a time was available at several Granville stores. Today, the game is relatively obscure, even in Granville. Copies have surfaced from time to time, but few of those who have this game have sold it. At present there are no copies of the “Game of Granville” board game in the Granville historical collection.