The stone came from Branchville. The land came from a former postmaster, James Corcoran, and the building itself was a gift from Edwin and Elizabeth Gilbert. A Bridgeport architect, Joseph W. Northrop, designed it. The cornerstone was laid in October 1901, and in June 1902 the building on North Main Street was dedicated as the Gilbert Memorial Church. It has a bell tower, buttresses, pointed-arch windows, a round turret with a conical roof, and a pipe organ built around 1900 by the Hutchings-Votey Co. of Boston. Edwin and Elizabeth Gilbert are buried in the small cemetery behind it.
This November, that building at 5 N. Main Street has more scheduled evenings than any other address in Georgetown. It's now called The Granite, and between now and the first week of December its calendar includes a two-weekend play, three Sunday concerts, a free speakeasy night, and folk music jams that run on donations. It's doing the same job it was built for 124 years ago, as the place the village gathers.
A Church Built for the Mill, Revived While the Mill Waits
The Gilbert & Bennett Wire Mill ran in Redding from 1848 to 1989 and turned the area into a company town for generations of immigrant workers and their families. The granite church was one of five denominational churches built to serve those families. In September 2022, BeFoundation bought the building to restore it as a nonprofit arts space. The Granite describes its mission as preserving the church "as a gathering place for all, connecting generations through community building, learning, and creativity."
The mill site itself moves on a slower schedule. The town took ownership of 44 acres of the property in 2020. Since then, the Revitalize Georgetown process has produced three concept options. The next steps are choosing and refining a preferred plan, working out phasing and implementation, and drafting zoning changes. According to the Wire Mill Advisory Committee's October 8 minutes, the Board of Selectmen approved just under $100,000 for stabilization repairs to the weaving building. A $2 million federal EPA grant is moving forward for soil cleanup in the West Pond and OMS areas, and the town expects a decision in November or December on a separate $200,000 state DECD grant application. The Zoning Commission scheduled a public hearing on Georgetown zoning for October 28, with a determination expected in November or December.
Soil cleanup, structural stabilization and zoning are all early-stage work. For now, the mill's future is something to watch from across the street, and the village's evenings have gone to the building the mill paid for.
Four Ways Into the Building, From Free to $45
What makes this calendar unusual is its range of prices. The same room hosts free nights, donation nights and $45 concerts, sometimes in the same week. Grouped by price, the season sorts like this:
| How you get in | Event | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Free, cocktail donations welcome | Granite Underground Speakeasy with Teddy Goldstein, Melissa Capezio opening | Friday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. |
| Donations appreciated | Old Time Jam | Wednesday, Nov. 18 |
| Donations appreciated | Bluegrass Nights | Thursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m., then Thursday, Dec. 17 |
| $45 or pay-what-you-can | David Morgan Trio | Sunday, Nov. 1 |
| $45 or pay-what-you-can | America/Beautiful | Sunday, Nov. 8, 3 p.m. |
| $45 general, $25 ages 13 to 17, free under 13 with a ticketed adult, limited pay-what-you-can | My Children! My Africa! | Nov. 12 to 15 and Nov. 19 to 22 |
| $45 or pay-what-you-can | Write It Down Or Improvise? | Sunday, Dec. 6, 2 p.m. |
The donation nights are where the building feels most like a village hall. Bluegrass Nights is a monthly evening hosted by Austin Scelzo. It starts with an open slow jam, then a set from the Granite House Bluegrass Band, then informal jamming that the event page describes as open to all. The schedule skips November, so the October 29 session is the last one until December 17. The Old Time Jam on November 18 is a monthly gathering for Appalachian old-time music. You can bring an instrument or just come to listen. The Granite identifies fiddler Lana Auerbach as the leader of Redding's community Old Time Jam.
On Monday nights, the Bluegrass Jam Class is an eight-session Wernick Method course for players learning to jam. Austin Scelzo teaches it, tuition is $285, and students register through Wernick Method. The current session runs October 5 through December 7.
The Granite Underground Speakeasy on Friday, November 6, is free. Teddy Goldstein plays, Melissa Capezio opens, and cocktail donations are welcome.
The Play That Fills Two Weekends
The biggest commitment of the month is Lonetown Theater Works' production of Athol Fugard's My Children! My Africa!, produced by Charles Frederick Secrease. The run covers eight performances. Thursday through Saturday shows start at 8 p.m., and the two Sunday shows on November 15 and November 22 are 2 p.m. matinees. Tickets are sold through The Granite: $45 general admission, $25 for students and youth ages 13 to 17, free for children under 13 with a ticketed adult, and a limited number of pay-what-you-can seats.
The Sunday concerts on either side of the play are smaller and sell quickly. The David Morgan Trio on November 1 features Morgan on piano, Neal Miner on bass and Eric Halvorson on drums, and both its $45 and pay-what-you-can ticket categories have already sold out. On November 8, America/Beautiful presents pianist Min Kwon's project, which commissioned 76 composers to write variations on "America the Beautiful." Lina Elwood and Christopher Li of Music For Youth also perform. The season wraps up on December 6 with Write It Down Or Improvise?, a "Jazz Meets Classical" program that brings jazz and classical trios together with Lana Auerbach, Miriam Liske Doorandish, Andrew Levine and David Morgan.
With a sellout already on the calendar, it makes sense to book the remaining Sunday concerts early.
Building the Evening Around the Show
Every Granite night is close to a meal elsewhere in the village, and the hours of the two nearest food spots line up neatly with the calendar.
The Georgetown Owl houses two businesses in one building, a Market & Café for breakfast, lunch, weekend brunch and coffee, and a Restaurant & Saloon for dinner, drinks and wine. The Saloon serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday starting at 4 p.m., has happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. on those days, and sells wine bottles at half price on Wednesday evenings. The Market & Café is open every day from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
That gives each kind of Granite night its own pairing:
- Thursday through Saturday play nights, 8 p.m. curtain: dinner at the Saloon, which opens at 4 p.m. on all three nights.
- Wednesday, November 18, Old Time Jam: the jam lands on the Saloon's half-price wine night.
- Sunday matinees on November 15 and 22, 2 p.m.: weekend brunch at the Market & Café, which closes at 3 p.m.
- Sunday concerts on November 8 and December 6: a late lunch at the Market & Café, then the walk over.
For daytime, there's The Given Inn at 4 Old Mill Road, which calls itself a floral café and vinyl room in historic Georgetown. According to the News-Times, Natasha Smith planned soft openings there on April 10 and 11 this year, in the space the Old Mill Market & Café occupied until it closed in 2025. The menu includes a house Given Inn Blend of Brazilian and Haitian beans roasted in Connecticut, quiches, paninis, a soup of the day, and chili on Fridays while it lasts. It's also a Vinted Go shop location for shipping and picking up packages. The café's website notes a full events schedule is "coming soon," so check its Instagram for current hours before a weekday visit.
Where Else the Same Week Goes
A few other dates this season land in the same weeks as the Granite schedule, and two of them share a Sunday afternoon with it.
On Sunday, November 8, the Redding Historical Society holds an Umpawaug Schoolhouse Open House from 1 to 4 p.m. Anyone with tickets to the 3 p.m. America/Beautiful concert will want to arrive at the schoolhouse at 1 p.m. The Society's December open house follows on Sunday, December 6, from noon to 3 p.m., which overlaps the 2 p.m. Write It Down Or Improvise? program, so concertgoers have a midday window.
The day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 27, the Redding Land Trust leads its Annual Post-Thanksgiving Hike.
On Saturday, December 5, Putnam Memorial State Park hosts its free Winter Walk from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The program includes a historian-led walk through the encampment, a tactical skirmish, visitor center activities, and living history demonstrations. The park says the schedule may change and recommends checking its event page before you go. The next afternoon brings the last of The Granite's fall Sunday concerts.
The town's own schedule for the mill site points to November and December as the months for the DECD grant decision and the zoning determination. Those same weeks, the 1902 church across the way has something on its calendar almost every week.
Georgetown is a village where history shapes a home's value as much as its square footage does. If you live near North Main Street and are wondering how the mill site's next steps could affect your corner of Redding, Bowman Properties is glad to talk it through over coffee at The Given Inn. Work with Lisa.
