Who is H.D. Hoag?
The population of the town of Granby increased rapidly in the 1800s and by the 1880s both the town and the high school had outgrown their spaces.
Belchertown contractor H. D. Hoag was hired to build it.
As designed, the building’s first floor had a hall that ran to the high school room (25 by 35 feet designed for 45 students) on the south side and a 15.5-by-17-foot library room with a “round bay-window” on the north side. There was also a town clerk’s office with a records room, and a set of stairs at the rear of the building that led to a school yard. The second floor was one large hall, 38.5 by 40.5 feet “in the clear” for town meetings and “entertainments".
The building was estimated to cost $7000, but apparently cost about $6700, with the town paying $2700 of that cost. The Springfield newspaper predicted that Kellogg Hall would be “the handsomest edifice in the village.”
