The 1917 South Church Fire

Between 1900 and 1925, favorable economic conditions allowed for the most lasting community revival in the town of Granby's history. Volunteerism, which is the hallmark of today's town, was on the rise then, with citizen involvement in one worthy cause after another.

For the residents of Salmon Brook Street, the beautiful area of older homes that distinguish the residential life of the town center, a local disaster culminated in the creation of an ideal New England village.

While many New England village beautification activities were fading at the turn of the 20th century, Granby was in full bloom.

The town green, with its magnificent Civil War memorial, was being ardently attended to with fundraisers to help finance the park's upkeep.

A tennis court had been constructed and was the focus of social and recreational life in the center.

In 1914 the ladies of South Congregational Church formed the Granby Civic Club, whose purpose was to create a "better" Granby.

Not to be outdone, around the same time, the men of the church formed the Men's Community League.

Their inspiration came from a group of Boy Scouts who hiked through town in that year and as a result, formed the first Scout chapter in the town of Granby.

They met in a building known to the locals as the "parsonage barn" and where, a few years later, the Girl Scouts began meeting as well.

Both the Civic Club and the Men's League were put to the test when, in 1917, the South Church burned to the ground!

This fine structure had been erected in the 1869 for the Granby Library Association and later used as a "Town House" or meetinghouse  as well as a private academy.

In 1872, use of the second floor hall was offered to The Congregational Society of Salmon Brook (the precursor of the South Congregational Church) for its place of worship. 

The loss was devastating to the church and to the community and despite one newspaper editor's suggestion "it might be a good time for Granby's to combine,"  that was not about to happen.

Not only were the two groups somewhat incompatible, such a move would have upset the plans already firmly in place for the Street. 

As Dr. Sherwood Soule remarked in his 1922 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the South Church:

A Connecticut village without a church is a condition unbearable, and as abhorrent as Nature toward a vacuum. This is an attractive village, beautiful for situation on a broad street flanked by graceful shade trees and comfortable homes. This picture simply won't complete without a church.

His vision was in fact shared with the members of the South Church, as illustrated immediately after the fire, when the finance committee issued a circular letter stating,

There is a general recognition throughout the village that the church should center the community life, that it should concern itself in all normal social activities and pleasure and in providing proper facilities for their enjoyment.

The committee went on to list perceived needs, which included not only a new church but four other building projects: a new library, a community house, a community playground and a new school.

Although the school was the financial responsibility of the town, they felt the collection as a whole represented "needs that must be met if a well-rounded community is to be maintained."

By July of 1918, the Hartford Times praised Granby for its "patriotism" as they built their new colonial revival church meetinghouse and raised money for community house and playground, while pressing the town for a new school building.

As for the library, the church had already received a commitment from the family of Laura Dibble Bunce, who had led a library reorganization effort in the 1860s, to construct a new library in her honor.

In support of the whole project, the Rev. Irving Berg, a former minister, wrote the following appeal to the editors of the Hartford Courant:

Granby seemed to me during my ministry there as it seems to me now, one of the worthiest and most typical of the better rural New England communities. The main street was beautiful with its fine old trees and well-kept lawns. The little white church never suffered from lack of paint! The houses of the people, the park with its soldiers monument, the carefully tended cemetery, the excellent library, housed in the church building, the general air of quiet dignity and simplicity were all eloquent testimony of the sturdy New England which many of us from other states have come to associate with the best life of the nation. A town which is such a producer of the better life of little old New England, should not have its present appeal fall on deaf ears!

Please check back next week for the conclusion of this story and find out how Granby received national recognition for the vision of its citizens at the turn of the 20th century. 

Thanks to Mark Williams and his book A Tempest in a Small Town for the information contained in today's story.