Granville, Massachusetts
A Short History of Granville
From a free grant of hilltown land, to a village that once rivaled Springfield, to a drum factory and a cheese cellar that outlasted the crowds, Granville has always run its own affairs in a single room.
A Hundred Acres and Four in Hay
English colonists first settled these hills in 1736, on the western edge of what would become Hampden County, about 18 miles from Springfield. The terms of settlement were plain and generous: a family could claim a 100-acre lot for free, provided they built a house on it and put four acres into English hay. That bargain filled the hilltowns, and it is why Granville grew as a town of independent farmers rather than a mill village clustered around one owner.
Incorporated in 1754
Granville was officially incorporated in 1754, once the frontier wars of the previous decade had ended in 1750 and the settlement was secure enough to govern itself. The town took its name from John Carteret, the 2nd Earl Granville, a British statesman of the day. From the start its business was decided the way it still is: by the townspeople gathered at Town Meeting, voting the budget and the bylaws in person.
The Town That Rivaled Springfield
Granville’s population peaked at about 2,100 in 1810, a moment when the busy hilltown genuinely rivaled Springfield down in the valley. Then the pull of better farmland to the west and factory work in the cities drew people away, and the town settled into the smaller size it holds today, about 1,538 residents at the 2020 census. The empty stretches that resulted are part of why Granville can still ask its Town Meeting for hundreds of acres at a time.
Drums and Cheese
Two Granville trades outlasted almost everything else. The Noble and Cooley company began making drums in the town in the nineteenth century and is still making them today. And the village center kept its old country store, known for a cellar-aged Granville cheese that draws people up the hill. A farming hilltown does not usually leave a lasting brand behind, and Granville left two.
The Water Tower of Three Cities
For all its small size, Granville does an outsized job for its neighbors: the town sits on the watershed for three reservoirs that supply drinking water to Hartford, Springfield, and Westfield. Route 189 runs south from the town center straight to the Connecticut border. When Granville protects its wetlands and open space, it is protecting water that runs well beyond the town line, which is one more reason its conservation boards matter.
Sources: Wikipedia, Granville, Massachusetts; the Town of Granville (granville-ma.gov); U.S. Census Bureau.