Granville Then & Now – August 24, 2023

Water carnival was held at Lake St. Catherine

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.

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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."

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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."

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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.