The northern-most town in the Valley, Granby retains much of the natural beauty its first settlers found in the late 1600s. Salmon Brook, a major tributary of the Farmington River, flows placidly through gently rolling pastures, ancient orchards and second-growth woodlands that once were crop fields. Along narrow, winding roads, antique homes and old barns stand side-by-side with contemporary structures connecting the town’s past to its present.


Of the three villages, North and West Granby retain a rural character with land for pastures and paddocks where horses, llamas, goats and the last remaining dairy cows graze. Boarding stables, equestrian centers and single-horse stalls abound in this town known for its love of horses.

Granby Center is the town’s hub where shade-grown tobacco fields have long-since been overlaid with a dense concentration of restaurants, services, banks and shops. Windsor Federal Bank recently moved across Rt. 189 to join Cumberland Farms. In the Village Shops plaza you’ll find Village Health, ABC Pizza (Granby’s first take-out), Lox Stock and Bagels, Starbucks, Granby Chinese Restaurant, Center Spirit Shop, Stitches by Me, Granby Barber & Style Shop, Chocoholic, J Valley Brunelle Framing and New Creations on Hair. Granby Pharmacy, Beman’s Hardware, Simsbury Bank, lite-n-up Eatery, John Michael Hair Design plus Geissler’s Supermarket and the shops and restaurants along Bank Street create a bustling, pedestrian-friendly shopping district.

On the center green, the Civil War Monument shares space with an ever-changing array of signs publicizing area events. Three major routes that carry the heaviest commuter and resident traffic through town converge at the green; Route 202/10 connects to other Valley towns; Route 189 runs southeast to Hartford and northwest to Granville, Mass. and Route 20 accesses Bradley International Airport and Interstate 91 to the east and Hartland to the west.

Just north on 202/10, Granby Memorial Middle School, Salmon Brook Ecology Center and Memorial High School share a campus. GMHS has dominated Class S field hockey for decades and this year the team won it’s second state title in three years to continue that legacy. Well-coached teams produce great players like Junior Abby Bascetta who was named the Connecticut Field Hockey Player of the Year and First Team on the 2009 National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s high school All-American Team.

Around the bend, Cambridge House BrewPub draws fans from far and wide with award-winning brews named for local landmarks. At Granby Commons, New England Pizza is a favorite destination for comfort meals and Toni Ann’s opens before sunup with hearty breakfasts, lunch and the hottest local news. Just north, the antiques, collectables and ephemera at the Salmon Brook Shops caught the eye of former First Lady Laura Bush in September as she explored a bit of Connecticut after speaking at a seminar in Hartford.

East Street leads to North Granby Center where the historic Cossitt Library will be closed for major renovations and repairs in 2010. Across the intersection, the Allen’s old cider mill is on the National Register of Historic Places. The mill dates to the 1750s and surely helped make Granby the leading distiller of cider for Hartford County in the 1800s.

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