169 North Granby Road, Granby, CT, 06035

After 1800 the country was ready for a new “American” look and they developed a love for the look of ancient Greece. The “Greek Revival” style spread quickly and became the ultimate “modern look” of the 1820s through the 1860s. The town record shows this home was built in 1827 and over the years was used as a mercantile store and later a tavern or small inn. The earliest recorded owner was Abel Dickinson sold to Lewis Holcomb in 1854. Mr. Holcomb had a whip manufacturing business on nearby Wells Road. The construction of this home is extremely rare. Rather than the typical post & beam construction, it was constructed with milled 2x4 boards stacked on top of each other in the way a log home would have been constructed. It took 100 times more lumber and 10 times the time to construct than the standard post & beam method. (A small cutout in the kitchen displays this remarkable feature) One source suggested that the original builder may have been a retired sea captain because it employed similar construction methods to the way a ship’s hull is designed. In addition, the look of the house has other “nautical” similarities with its porches on each side in symmetry, resembling a vessel amidships. The last “one-of-kind” feature is the lantern or cupola sitting high atop the relatively flat main roof design. This is akin to the seashore homes of Cape Cod or Nantucket with a lookout to watch for ships arriving from far away places.