By Erik Pekar
This week we turn
the pages of time back to the May 4, 1923 issue of the Granville Sentinel. A
Granville man had a prospective opportunity: "The name of W. L. Munson, M.
D., of Granville was Wednesday sent to the senate by Governor Alfred E. Smith for
confirmation for the post of trustee of the New York State Hospital for the
treatment of incipient pulmonary tuberculosis."
Last week we
mentioned the news item in the Pawlet personal mention column, where Floyd
Sheldon was erecting the community's new post office building. He finished his
work efficiently and quickly, as evidenced by this item in the May 4 issue:
"The postoffice was moved to the new building on the upper street Tuesday
morning and Mrs. Sheldon, the new postmistress, has charge."
At Wells, a
spelling bee was held: "The following stood longest in the last spelling
contest of the village school: Harriet Howe, Benford Hopson, Malcolm Shannon,
Harold Park, Iris Hopson, Dorothy Miner and Lillian Warner." The name of
Beuford Hopson has a typo in the quoted text, the result of the letters n and u
being adjacent by row on the old Linotype keyboard. Beuford owned Hopson's
Store for many years. Iris was a relative, and was involved with the Wells
Village Library; she also compiled the Lake Saint Catherine history scrapbook.
Malcolm Shannon was active in the community and also was an owner of M&J
Home Service on Granville's Main Street in the 1960s.
In Granville, a
local store was holding an event: "A food sale under the auspices of
Captain Israel Harris chapter, D. A. R., will be held Friday (tomorrow)
afternoon at Barnard Brothers store after 1:30 o'clock. Pies, cakes, rolls,
doughnuts, cookies, brown bread and beans will be on sale. Everybody invited to
buy food." There is insufficient detail to determine if the sale
benefitted the chapter.
In 1923 one of the
oldest institutions in Granville was still active: "The half-yearling
meeting for worship of the Religious Society of Friends will be held at the
meeting-house, at the corner of West Main and Quaker streets, next Sunday, May
6, at 2:30 o'clock in the afternoon. Collections are never taken. Everybody is
cordially invited to attend." The Society of Friends, or Quakers, had a
presence in Granville since its founding as Bishop's Corners. The end of their
years in Granville was coming up, and within a year the Friends disbanded the
Granville Meeting.
+++
Jumping ahead some
years, we turn to the May 7, 1953 issue of the Sentinel, at which time the
theatrical arts were well on display in Granville. The Granville Community
Players performed "You Can't Take It With You" two nights in a row,
May 6 and 7. The cast included Jasper Steele, Andrew Senchik, Haydn Hughes,
Dominick Villano, Evelyn Zayachek, Elaine Corey, Irene Reinert, Kay Owens, John
Heckman, Raymond Williams, Ruth Ginsburg, Ernestine Schiff, Levi Ayres, Willard
Reynolds, Helen Evans and Ernie Roberts. The set was designed by Adele Rothman.
Another article
appeared in the same issue regarding the group, which read as follows:
"The Community Theater group will have the last meeting of the season on
Monday evening at the high school. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss
plans for the year, as the group hopes there will be not only those who have
been active but new members who would like to work and play with the group next
season. The group has become a real force in the community. They have made a
contribution to the hospital auxiliary this year and the play which is now
being produced is for the benefit of the Hook and Ladder company. They plan to
install lighting equipment at the high school. The lighting has been one of the
weak points in their productions and they hope to remedy this."
+++
The village board
meeting for May 1953 was held May 4. The highlight of the meeting was
discussion of traffic control at the intersection of West Main and Maple
Streets, with the result being to "request the State Traffic Commission of
Albany to install either a red blinker traffic light at the intersection ... or
authority to move the 'Stop' sign now on the Maple street side to the West Main
street intersection to break the speed of traffic in that locality."
Other events
included Thompson and Norton receiving the contract for floor tiles in the
village clerk's office; Trinity Episcopal Church receiving permission to erect
an "Episcopal Church Welcomes You" sign; a request from the Chamber
of Commerce for the board's opinion on parking meters; police court report and
health report; and milk bacteria testing reports, with Wooddell Dairy having
12,000 colonies per c.c. for milk and 2,000 for cream; Parker's Dairy had 8,000
for milk and 4,000 for cream. Village water showed only one colony after 24
hours of incubation.
Some things have
changed since then and other things remain similar. The traffic light was
evidently installed, and still hangs from a pole at the corner of West Main and
Maple Streets, but has not been used as an active traffic control device in
many years. The village offices are no longer in the building where the tiles
were installed. The Trinity Episcopal Church is no longer extant.
On the other hand,
the idea of parking meters has remained unpopular, and if it was attempted
today it would cause an uproar worse than that given a couple years ago to the
idea of reverse angle diagonal parking. Police court reports are still recited
at the village board meetings, but health reports are different today due to
changes in laws and regulations, and the vanishing of village births since the
discontinuance of maternity care at the former Emma Laing Stevens Hospital.
Regarding the milk,
cream and water reports, village water reports are still done, but information
on bacteria colony counts has been exchanged for the addresses of the buildings
from which the water samples were taken. The milk and cream bacteria reports
were likely due to both dairies having delivery routes within the village
limits. Today, there are no dairy delivery routes serving the village of
Granville, and both the Parker and Wooddell dairies are defunct.
+++
Last weekend was
busy in Granville. On Saturday, there were two events. The Ag Fair, arranged by
the Granville Agricultural Department of the high school, was held at the
grounds of the Granville Elementary School, with several informational booths.
On the other side of the high school, history was being made with the Blue and
Gold Invitational, the first large scale track and field invitational held in
Granville in over 40 years. The chilly, rainy conditions likely hindered
attendance of both events. The weather fared better on Sunday, to the benefit
of Granville's young baseball and softball players. Granville Little League
kicked off the season with a parade down Main Street, followed by some games.
This weekend will
also be eventful. The Great Granville Town Wide Yard Sale takes place this
Saturday and Sunday. Those who like to buy or sell items at yard sales are
encouraged to come to Granville.
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