Granville Then & Now – Main Street bustled with stores in 1941

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

There were many advertisers in the Oct. 16, 1941, issue of the Sentinel. The names of the advertisers may be familiar to some in the Granville area, if not the actual businesses themselves.

The Granville Furniture Company, owned by D.J. McHenry and Will E. Roberts, featured a new three-piece living room set, with a sofa and two chairs, as “furniture for fall,” selling for $99.

The Wilson Clothing Company had ads for suits and Wolverine gloves. Bert Goldberg, Inc., had an ad for suits, as well as Adam hats and shirts.

H.G. McDonald was selling several sizes of rugs, “Congoleum” ranging from $3.95 to $9.95, and felt-based types selling for 39 to 59 cents per yard. His store at the time was upstairs over the Grand Union store.

Weinberg’s Hardware had Florence oil heaters and ranges for sale.

There were several ads for grocers, including the A&P, Grand Union, Barnard Brothers, E.C. Hewitt Co., and Lawler’s Market.

Wiesner’s Garage advised drivers to let them look over their cars and prepare the cars for the winter season.

The Granville Hook and Ladder announced that they would be holding card parties, starting Oct. 22, 1941, and continuing for 15 weeks thereafter. The card parties would have 30 tables, with an admission cost of 35 cents, and door prizes would be given away, totaling $75. The fire company planned to use the proceeds from the parties to defray the cost of enlarging their fire house for their new fire truck. There were several businesses who sponsored the event: Haskins Drug Store, L.E. Roberts, Mansir W. Hicks, Jr., Munson & Tierney, Locke’s Auto Accessories, W.J. Williams, Lawler’s Market, Lasher’s Pharmacy, Whitcomb Hardware, Paul’s Lunch, Don’s Service Station, M.T. Minogue, Elwell & Smith, Minogue’s Liquor Store, The Ladies’ Store, Wooddell Dairy, M. Ginsburg & Son, H. Berkowitz & Son, Mettowee Garage, Lichtig’s, Wilson Clothing Co., Hayes’ Recreation, Stevens-Price, Inc., N. Goldberg & Son, B. Goldberg, Inc., S. Weinberg Co., Dwyer’s Restaurant, Barrows Insurance, Angelo DiBernardo, and John Brayton.

Playing at the Ritz Theater for the week of Oct. 16 to 22 (Thursday to Wednesday): Thursday and Friday, “Here Comes Mr. Jordan”,and the State Dept. of Health feature “Twixt The Cup and the Lip;” Saturday, “Scattergood Meets Broadway” and “Wide Open Town;” Sunday and Monday, “Navy Blues”; Tuesday and Wednesday, “Frank Buck’s Jungle Cavalcade” and “Whistling in the Dark”.

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The 38 Main Street building was sold this summer, on Aug. 2. The building was last used in 2003 as the Granville House of Pizza. For a brief time in August, dumpsters were placed in front and back, and the building was cleared of junk. The sale and junk removal went mostly unnoticed, but those who did notice figured that something may be happening to the building.

The future of the 38 Main building was revealed on Oct. 7, when Granville’s Tommy Festa announced that he would be opening a new restaurant in the building, to be called Tommy’s Place. The restaurant is planned to be open for lunch and dinner, featuring freshly made food, including but not limited to soups, sandwiches, Italian cuisine and pizza. Festa is a familiar face in Granville, having the Clever Cleaver food truck and several years of experience here in local eateries. The opening of “Tommy’s Place” will be a welcome addition to Granville’s Main Street. Congratulations, “Tommy,” and may “Tommy’s Place” be successful.

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Progress is being made with the construction of the new Church Street bridge. More than 30 concrete trucks passed through Granville last weekend to pour concrete for the southern abutment of the new bridge. An earlier convoy of concrete trucks had to be turned back a couple of weeks ago due to a high amount of air bubbles in the concrete, which would have caused problems in the future had the faulty concrete been poured. Last weekend’s concrete had no such issues and pouring was done as planned. The bridge construction is still anticipated to be finished around mid-November.