More About Store #1:

 

At 15 years of age (1846) James Newton Loomis worked as a clerk in the Phelps Store which was located in front of today’s Stony Hill Village. After a few years, he threatened to leave so Phelps made him a partner. By 1860, records show the business was owned by J. N. and his brother Chester Peck Loomis.

Within a few years, the brothers greatly enlarged the store to the imposing building shown in the photo.  The original Phelps Store became the small ell to the north. 

​

Chester P. Loomis and his family lived over the store. There was also a private school on the third floor, the Granby Loomis Hall School.   The Masons held their meetings there and in 1864, the large room on the third floor was also used for Granby Town Meetings. 

​

The Loomis Store was literally the center of all town activity. They sold everything a small farming community might need and was also the Post Office and Town Clerk’s Office.

In addition to selling most everything, the Loomis Brothers gave credit, lent money, recorded the official town records from births to deaths, marriages, debts, lawsuits.

​

In 1877 a disastrous fire burned the store, most of the merchandise and a hotel to the south.  Fortunately, all of the Granby Town Records were saved, until the wind changed and burned three land record books (books 2, 3 and 4) destroying most of the land transactions from the 1790s.  

​

In less than a month the Loomis Brothers reopened their store in a building they owned across the street.