1. Dutch Iris Inn
City: Granby, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (877) 280-0743
Address: 239 Salmon Brook Rd.
Description: This golden 1812 home set amid sugar maples in Granby is full of antiques left by the family, including a Chickering piano, a fainting couch, a four-poster bed, a marble-top dresser, and a Louis XIV couch. But the owners, Bill and Nancy Ross, have designed and restored this place into a quiet perfection beyond antique charm. They’ll give you the hospitality you are craving, with tea and wine in front of the fireplace, and a rich breakfast the next morning. The Dutch Iris has 6 rooms, some of which have fireplaces and jet tubs. Stop at the Salmon Brook Shops nearby at 563 Salmon Brook Rd. and check out the antiques store there.
2. Salmon Brook Historical Society
City: Granby, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 653-9713
Address: 208 Salmon Brook St.
Description: The Granby historical society of Salmon Brook has one of the better collections in the state, of both buildings and artifacts. All sit at 208 Salmon Brook St., though all but one were moved there. The Abijah Rowe House is original, and is the oldest structure left from the settlement, built about 1732 as the house of blacksmiths, who may have made some of the hardware still in the house. The Moses Weed saltbox is from 1790, and was located up the road at what is today Enders State Forest (drive up Route 20 and find the excellent waterfall just off the parking lot there). Inside today you’ll find a Victorian parlor complete with Edison phonograph, and a gift shop. The Cooley School is a one-room schoolhouse from 1870, and still has the teacher’s writing on the chalkboard from when it closed in 1948. The last building is a large 1914 tobacco barn, in which the society houses its main museum, with a collection of farming, quilting, spinning, and weaving tools, Civil War memorabilia, a small “meeting house” re-creation (from original pieces), a dressmaker’s shop, a shoemaker’s shop, a creamery, a voting booth, and a “village store.” Visit Sun from 2 to 4 p.m., June through Sept.