"Foss" Etheridge, Round Pond mailman

Granite Hall Store over the years...

Granite Hall, originally called Hines Hall, was built in 1873 when Round Pond was a bustling village and harbor known for it’s granite quarries, pogy factories and summer rusticators.  The men who worked in the granite quarries boarded in homes around the square and the granite, used for buildings, was shipped to Boston and New York by steamship from Round Pond harbor.


The store owned by William Smith had a dance hall upstairs known as Granite Hall and a “fruit and confectionary” shop downstairs with a billiard table in the back room. At the turn of the century it was nicknamed "The Saloon".  Over the years the hall served as a community gathering spot for dances, band concerts, minstrel shows, silent movies, 8th grade graduation for the Washington School and even roller skating. The dances were, at times, attended by over two hundred people, which made the building shake!​

Round Pond Coach

Fossett's

The piano used for the dances and silent movies is still upstairs on the stage.  To this day it’s occasionally played by customers and was used for a wedding held in the hall in 2012. The silent movie screen can also still be found rolled up over the stage.  Several customers have reported that they remember their mothers or grandmothers playing the piano for the silent movies and their fathers or grandfathers playing guitar, saxophone or drums for the dances.  Town folk enjoyed dancing to foxtrots, waltz's and the “Lady of the Lake”.


During the early 20th century Perly Fossett and later his daughter Eleanor ran the store as “Fossett’s”, selling ice cream and penny candy until it closed in 1960 after Eleanor’s death.  On summer days Perly Fossett would start up the generator to make chocolate or vanilla ice cream and this noise would signal the local children that it was time for a treat!  One day Perly accidentally got a little rock salt in the ice cream and the children were thrilled to get a free cone (now chocolate sea salt is a popular confection!).  In the early 1950‘s ice cream sold for a nickel a cone. ​

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L-R Myrtle Fossett, Maude Hastings, Eleanor Fossett, Celia Fossett, Perly Fossett

1955

The Granite Hall Store is opened

The building was closed for twelve years until Charles and Sandy Holme bought it in 1972.  Charles jacked up the foundation and opened it as the Granite Hall Store where their infant daughter napped upstairs in a bureau drawer.  The ice cream take-out window was added in 1981 by the next owners, Edward and June Chandler. When Eric and Sarah Herndon bought the store in 1983, June told them “If I were you I’d get rid of the penny candy!”.  Luckily that didn’t happen!


Eric and Sarah first lived upstairs in the hall with their young daughters, Mary and Jane, then moved to a house nearby and re-opened the upstairs with antiques, Irish woolens and books.  Eric and Sarah ran the store alone for several years but now there are over 10 seasonal employees, which shows you how popular Round Pond village has become. 


In October of 2008 a fire broke out upstairs in the Hall. A neighbor stopped in and reported seeing smoke and said “Call 911!”.  Fire fighters from 4 towns responded and amazingly were able to save the historic building.  The community banded together to help with the clean up and hosted a fundraiser, with Castlebay preforming, called Songs and Sweets at the Little Brown Church. 


Eric passed away in 2012 after 30 years owning Granite Hall. It had always been his dream to run his own store and finding it in this special little coastal village was serendipitous.  Sarah and her grown daughters continue to run the store and now a third generation--four grandchildren--can be found “helping out”.