Granville Country Store
This article was originally part of the "From Today's Motorcycle Ride" series, the predecessor to the Southwick Time Machine.
7:45 a.m. Off we go. We head down to the Granville Country Store, famous for its cheese, to pick up the made-to-order breakfast sandwiches we called in minutes ago. Ham, egg, and sharp Granville cheese for me; bacon, egg, and extra-sharp Granville cheese for her.
Full of history, entering the store is like being transported back in time, for this is the quintessential classic New England general store. We sit at a small outdoor table overlooking the town green and eat.
Established in 1851 by Carlos Gibbons, the business was eventually renamed J. M. Gibbons after his son, eighteen-year-old proprietor John Murray Gibbons, who took over the store later that same year. The young Gibbons was so successful that it was said he put neighboring Timothy C. Gillett’s store out of business. Gillett’s store stood immediately west of Gibbons’ store. This section of town was initially called “Jockey Corners,” possibly due to the horse trading and racing which took place here. It then became known as Granville Corners.
At the time, it was commonplace for larger homes to contain a big cheese room as many families made and cured their own cheese. Having received feedback from friends, family, and locals alike, Murray, as he was called, realized that his cellar-aged cheese was far superior to those he sold over the counter. Soon after, he found a dairy farm that could produce it in larger quantities. Still, he continued to age it in his cellar beneath the store before offering it retail.
Gibbons’ cheese quickly grew in popularity, sparking baseless rumors that it was wrapped in rum-soaked cloths. Families from nearby Springfield and wealthy folks from New York City and Hartford, Connecticut, would venture to Granville for his cheese. As word spread, the cheese started being shipped cross-country.
In addition to being a successful shopkeeper, Murray, like his father, was also the postmaster. For some time, his store housed the town’s post office. When the post office first opened inside Gibbons’ store, he was too young to be appointed postmaster, so the sheriff was postmaster, and Gibbons assistant postmaster until he turned twenty-one which was the legal age. Upon his death, one of his sons: Benjamin Franklin Gibbons, succeeded him, being postmaster for forty years before facing mandatory retirement in early July of 1941. The post office, a long-time fixture at Gibbons’ store, moved to a new, standalone building on Granby Road. It opened to the public on Monday, October 2, 1944. It closed in 2002 when the present-day post office on Main Road opened.
Benjamin, like his father, was also the town’s undertaker.
Dedicated to public service, Murray served double-duty as town clerk and treasurer for thirty-two years, then treasurer alone for an additional three years.
Gibbons’ store was destroyed when a fire ripped through Granville Corners on September 1-2, 1884. He received permission to store any saved merchandise at the Methodist Church temporarily. The blaze also claimed the barbershop and Gibbons’ undertaker’s establishment, along with some tenement houses, barns, and the public speaking hall.
John Murray Gibbons died in Granville on February 18, 1901. Buried in the Silver Street Cemetery, his grave reads “Murray J. Gibbons.”
The Granville Country Store has a lot of history. Grades six, seventh, and eighth were taught in a
one-room school above the store sometime before 1933-34 when the Granville Village School opened.
The upstairs originally had a pool room and ballroom where social events were held and dance lessons taught. The store also had a few small living spaces they rented to tenants.
A gray sack was found lying on the floor when J. M. Gibbons [and] Sons, as it was now named, opened for business on Monday, July 18, 1904. It was soon discovered a break-in had occurred. The burglars broke the glass and climbed into a back room through a window. They gained access to the front of the store by forcefully prying open a door, breaking its hinges in the process.
Some of the missing items said to be valued around one hundred dollars, included: one-half dozen fountain pens, one-half dozen razors, two pairs of men’s Oxford shoes (sizes 6.5 and 9), eight pairs of boy’s shoes (various sizes), shoelaces, 12 black shirts, 12 soft fancy bosom shirts, 60 jack-knives, postage stamps, 24 pairs of castor gloves, 12 pairs of light leather gloves, a large lot of handkerchiefs and collar buttons, a trunk (fishing) rod, reels, miscellaneous fishing tackle, and either six or eight-dollars in cash. The robbery was reported to Westfield Police Chief Oren G. Cash, who mailed postcards containing a complete list of stolen goods to area police.
Heavy rain hampered the investigation as any tracks were washed away from the road. Still, authorities believed the thieves came by wagon from Southwick and possibly fled south to Granby, Connecticut. Residents “on the Southwick road” reported hearing a wagon pass about 1 a.m. while others on the road to Granby heard a wagon around 3 a.m. Both roads were followed for several miles, but no evidence was found.
A chimney used by a tenant caught fire around 7 p.m. on Sunday, December 9, 1934. It was believed the fire was out, but as a precaution, one of the store’s clerks was left to conduct a fire watch after the store closed at about 9:30. There were no signs of fire. The clerk, however, phoned owner Fred Gibbons at 11:30 to inform him that the chimney was still very hot. Sparks and flames awakened a tenant at 4:30 a.m.
She woke the other tenants and the clerk, who fell asleep on a couch inside the store around 2:30. An
initial call was placed to the Westfield Fire Department, followed by one to the Southwick Fire Department, as Granville lacked fire-fighting facilities then. Westfield firefighters made the eighteen-mile trek to Granville within fifteen minutes. It took another five minutes to start pumping water out of a nearby brook. Still, by then, the store was already fully engulfed, so they focused on saving other threatened buildings: row houses and a hotel.
The store’s owners estimated their losses to be between $15,000 and $20,000. Still, they weren’t exactly sure as all the store’s financial paperwork and ledgers were locked in a safe, which was dragged out of the store and onto the road in front of the smoldering ruins. The post office equipment was saved and relocated to the basement of the public library, where mail operations resumed the following day with no disruption in service.
Author's Notes: The Granville Volunteer Fire Department had officially formed in 1942. One of their first pieces of equipment was a 1936 Dodge, fitted with a 200-gallon wooden water tank and a Barton-American front-end mounted pump. In 1945, they acquired their first actual fire truck: a Ford American-LaFrance built that same year. It remained in service until 1977. Their second fire truck, a Diamond T, was purchased in 1949 for West Granville.
