Windham was a town of “corners” – Baker’s Corner, Boody’s Corner and some long forgotten. No doubt, the name “Grant’s Corner” will disappear before the 21st century ends, but for many generations, it’s been the intersection of River Road and Route 202. A large facility called “Crossroads” has been located here for many decades, but originally, it was a house built between 1860 and 1863 by a man named Valentine Cook.

The triangular shaped lot, with boundaries of River Road, Route 202 and Wood Road, was laid out in 1740. This 100-acre parcel was divided up many times and by 1846, Martha Crague sold 13 acres for $544. Samuel Smith of Portland was the buyer and the next year, he sold the lot to Huldah Woods; 10 years later, she sold to Newhall & Co., and then to Joseph Parker who sold it in 1860 to Valentine Cook.

Cook was a member of an old time Windham family of Quakers, who married a neighbor, Catherine Hamblen. He built a new house on this corner and by 1863 he had died. His wife remarried Samuel Bragdon; she and her son, Charles Cook, sold the house to John McLellan who in 1884 sold to Susan Jordan, a “modern” woman living in New York City.

Jordan married Jeremiah J. Grant, and from 1887 to 1960, the place stayed in the Grant family, giving its name to the corner.

In the early 1900s, a corn canning shop was located here, owned by McLellan. In 1906, Susan Grant paid the taxes for the house, land and a corn shop. By 1910, the corn shop was gone. Windham Historical Society has a large sepia toned photo of the corn shop and dozens of workers.

Susan Jordan Grant died in 1927 at the age of 83. She and her husband, J. J. Grant, had no children. He had been very active in Windham affairs serving as a selectman, road commissioner and fire warden. The house and property was left to his brother, William, the grandfather of Windham resident Nancy Shaw Larrivee. Half a century ago, another Grant, Ray, ran a store, selling groceries, gas and other necessities here at Grant’s Corner.