Granville Then & Now – October 13, 2022

Several "corner" names for local intersection

By Erik Pekar

The mention of McGuire’s Corners in the “Adopt a Highway” section of the “Granville Then and Now” column of Sept. 22 has resulted in several people inquiring of us where this intersection was located in the town of Granville.

This intersection was an important point in early Granville history but never a destination in itself. It was originally the north end of the roads from West Hebron and East Hebron. Another road continued north from here to Bishop’s Corners, the present Village of Granville, and other points north. The road from East Hebron was incorporated into the Northern Turnpike, which originated in Lansingburgh, near Troy; this increased the traffic coming through the corners. The intersection gained a fourth leg in the 1810s, when Isaac Bishop opened the “shunpike” road to today’s Main Street to bypass the toll booth at the north end of the turnpike.

By the 1860s, it was the location of the Potter brothers’ furniture store, a cabinet shop, and a schoolhouse. The school relocated in the 1870s to a former Quaker meeting house up the road, which was demolished several years ago.

The name of McGuire’s Corners does not appear to have entered use until the 20th century; it was the name of the family that once lived in the house on the southwest corner of the intersection. The earliest attested use in the Sentinel dates to September 1926; an advertisement for horses by “P. Myers” noted that a “carload of horses” would be arriving “at the Beebe Farm on the State Road at McGuire’s Corners.”

The roads eventually became state highways. Route 22 went through north-south on its way along the eastern state line from New York City to the Canadian border, and the east end of Route 149 was originally at the intersection; it was later extended through the Village of Granville to the Vermont state line, after Route 22 was relocated in the early 1960s to bypass the village.

The name of McGuire’s Corners began to fade from use after the 1930s. Michael Furlo opened a tavern at the southwest corner of the intersection in the mid-1930s, which was called the Four Corners Tavern. It soon became “Furlo’s (Four) Corners Tavern”, and by the 1950s it was common to refer to the intersection as “Furlo’s Corners.”

By the 1970s, the McGuire’s Corners name had faded in favor of “Furlo’s Corners.” Another new name would appear that decade. Moore’s Garage, located on the southeast corner across Route 22 from Furlo’s Tavern, incorporated in the mid-1970s as Moore’s Corners, Inc., which led to the corners gaining yet another alternate name.

Furlo’s Tavern closed in the late 1980s, while Moore’s Corners is still in business. The intersection of Routes 22 and 149 is today generally referred to either by the route numbers, or as “Moore’s Corners.” Some of the “longtimer” crowd of current or former Granville area residents still refer to the intersection as “Furlo’s Corners.” As for McGuire’s Corners, this name is rarely used today.

The intersection, just south of the Village of Granville, is still important, with traffic coming and going to Granville on Routes 22, 149 and lower Church Street. Called McGuire’s, Furlo’s or Moore’s, the corners are and will still be well known.

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The Granville Masons will return this month to holding a chicken barbecue dinner on the third Thursday of the month. There was no regular “third Thursday” dinner in September, as the Granville Masons participated in the Saturday fun day event of Granville Community Days. Dinners will be available on Oct. 21 at the Masonic Lodge on North Street, for $13 starting at 4 p.m., until gone.

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The days are getting shorter and cooler. The leaves of the trees are changing to greens, yellows, reds and browns, the palette of foliage colors. Locals and those passing through the area will be able to get a good look at the foliage in the vicinity. With fall this far along, seasonal activities like apple-picking, corn mazes and pumpkin contests are common.

Seasonal businesses are winding down before the winter, or starting up for those that do much of their business over the winter. Local gardening businesses will close in the coming weeks. Drive-in eateries have begun to do so as well. Jen’s Pit Stop closed on Sept. 25, after a season that initially posed a few hardships but proved to be successful for the Middle Granville eatery. Scarlotta’s Car Hop has switched to fall hours and is now open five days a week. Their seasonal closing, which will conclude the first season of the successful Scarlotta’s revival, is anticipated to occur at the end of the month.

While Halloween and Thanksgiving have not yet passed, some have already begun to look beyond those two days and toward the Christmas holiday season and its associated events. The village volunteers and the village DPW have already begun their work on the annual Christmas light decorations, including placing the decorative building outline lights on the Scarlotta’s Car Hop building, which for unknown reasons had been overlooked in 2020 and 2021. One local building has several wreaths hung along the walls. The registration has opened for the Granville Lighted Tractor Parade, which has been a popular event, and had quite the turnout last year. While such planning ahead is a good thing, hopefully people will also enjoy the fall pastimes, Halloween celebrations and Thanksgiving dinners before getting into the annual Christmas holiday spirit.

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This July, we remarked on the planned modular double-wide to be placed on Water Street by Kevin Daigle, and how it did not fit with Granville’s goals or interests in Mettowee River access and revitalization. The halves of the home arrived that week, and in the intervening months the double-wide was installed and is now being readied as a residence.

The Village of Granville has a Comprehensive Plan, which was finished and publicly released in 2003. One of the goals and aims expressed in the Plan was revitalizing the Mettowee River as a recreational destination for locals and tourists alike. The village of Granville’s approval of Daigle’s “mobile home” permit at the May 2022 meeting, without any public hearing or consideration of its potential impact, was an unfortunate and shocking blow to the cause of Mettowee River revitalization.

This land was a prime location in the village, which would have made a great access point to the Mettowee River, as well as providing space for a parking lot for the river, rail trail, and Slate Valley Museum. Due to the village board dropping the ball with prior boards’ goals of revitalizing the Mettowee River, the Water Street lot is now the site of a double-wide home, which is already being termed an eyesore by area residents. There was nothing wrong with Daigle wanting to bring a double-wide to install in the village, but there were other locations in the village far more suited to the task that were not riverfront properties.

The lack of interest shown in this situation by the village board of trustees regarding the Mettowee River is unfortunate. The only good thing about the double-wide building is that by its very nature as a double-wide, it can be disassembled and removed if the situation changed to necessitate its removal. Hopefully, there will be a time in the near future when the village board will care again about the Mettowee River and its revitalization, which would benefit the Granville area.

Note: This article was originally published with a different title, which sounded odd and was not of our choosing.