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James Newton Loomis House
261 Salmon Brook Street
This House:
This sprawling Italianate structure was built in 1858 for James Newton Loomis who came from Southwick in 1846. At 15 years of age, he worked as a clerk in the Phelps Store which was located in front of today’s Stony Hill Village. After he threatened to leave, he became a partner and in 1860 he and his brother Chester Peck Loomis became sole partners in the Loomis store.
A Bit More:
James Newton’s wife Catharine died in 1883 and J.N. married a second time to Estelle Deming. They renovated the house in 1899; J. N. died in 1919 and the house was sold after Estelle’s death in 1926.
The next owners operated it as The Granby Inn and then the Ruth Ford Tea Room in 1928.
Then the house started a run of doctors – Dr. Herman Edelberg in 1948, Dr. Patrick Lee in 1962 and William and Ruth Dwyer, both physicians, came in 1965.
The house is now a lawyer’s office.
Laura (niece), Estelle (wife), James Newton Loomis
Even More:
Tea rooms seemed to be a fad in the 1920’s. Many of the women living on Salmon Brook Street had a tea room for a few months.
Dr. Dwyer was a Norman Rockwell kind of doctor. He was compassionate, competent and caring. You could call him in the middle of the night. He was the town’s doctor; he was the doctor for the Ambulance Association, Police Department and Lost Acres Fire Department and the school physician. He died in 1983 and the town mourned. Dr. Ruth Dwyer lived in the house until 2004.