Jewett – Maltbie House

235 Salmon Brook Street

A Bit More:

William Mills Maltbie, a prominent lawyer, owned this house and the land behind it for many years. Maltbie was the named Chief Justice of the CT Supreme Court in 1930 and served for nearly 20 years. He was the youngest man in CT to hold that office. He started his career in public service in 1913 as the Republican state representative from Granby.

The house and land behind this house is now part of the Copper Brook Circle development.

One of the Jewett organ pipes that was used in the early church.

This House:

The original house on this lot was built c. 1750 and was for the first minister in Granby, Rev. Strong. The next owner was Dr. Joseph Jewett. In 1845 the old house was taken down and the present house was built on the original foundation. It was later modernized from a summer home into a year-round residence and incorporated other elements of the earlier house of the 1700’s.

William Mills Maltbie

Even More:

One of the early Jewett owners, Peter Jenner Jewett and his wife Adelaide Smith (married in 1824) had 9 children. He also studied medicine but became a manufacturer of musical instruments – organs and melodeons.

Peter J Jewett, probably with the help of his brother-in-law, Czar D. Goodman, and maybe Mr. Hillyer, built a pipe organ for St. Peters Episcopal Church that was located on Salmon Brook Street. It may have been the first built in this country. The church closed in the 1840’s and the 1845 records show that that organ was purchased by what-is-now First Congregational Church. Parts are in the Salmon Brook Historical Society collection.

Later Peter Jewett’s oldest son, Stanley, made the first reed organ in this country. He, his brother Frederic and his brother-in-law Czar D. Goodman manufactured “Jewett and Goodman” organs in Cleveland, Ohio.