9 South Canterbury Road, Canterbury (1820)

The Federal-style house at 9 South Canterbury Road was built c.1820 and has a porch on the front and side that was added later. In the 1850s, the house was owned by Marvin H. Sanger, a merchant, banker and politician. According to the Illustrated Popular Biography of Connecticut (1891):

Marvin Hutchins Sanger was born in Brooklyn, in Windham county, April 12, 1827. In his infancy his parents removed to Canterbury, where he was educated in the public schools, and at Bacon Academy in Colchester, and was kept at home assisting his father upon the farm until he reached the age of eighteen. Then followed two years of experience in a country store as clerk, which served as a preparation for the business of general merchandizing which he followed in Canterbury for twenty years, from 1849 to 1869 […] November 14, 1855, he was married to Miss Mary J. Bacon, daughter of the late Benjamin Bacon of Plainfield. They have had two children, both daughters. Mr. Sanger has been a lifelong democrat […] He has long been a justice of the peace and has thus been much occupied in the trial of criminal cases. He was elected town clerk and treasurer in 1852, and has been re-elected ever since with the exception of two years. He has been judge of probate for about a quarter of a century, and was postmaster at Canterbury for fifteen years under various presidential administrations. He has been on the board of directors of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, and now for several years has been its president. He represented Canterbury in the state legislature in 1857, 1860, 1882, 1887, and 1889; was secretary of state for four successive years, from 1873 to 1877 and was democratic candidate for state treasurer in the autumn of 1890, receiving an apparent majority of all the votes cast, but failing to receive official recognition from the house of representatives at its session the following January, owing to a disagreement between the two branches of the legislature as to the accuracy or validity of the returns, –as was the case with all the candidates on the democratic state ticket, with the exception of the comptroller.

In the 1920s, the barn to the rear of the house was used by Hiram Hawes as a flyfishing-rod factory.

12 Westminster Road, Canterbury (1810)

Dating to around 1810, the house at 12 Westminster Road in Canterbury has a striking Federal-style doorway. The house has been frequently surveyed: in An Architectural Monograph on Old Canterbury on the Quinebaug (White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, Vol. IX, No. 6, 1923); in the WPA Architectural Survey (c.1935) [Canterbury historic building 028 ]; and in the Historic American Buildings Survey (1940) [the doorway]. The gambrel-roofed ell of the house is believed to be part of an earlier house on the site, the home of Rev. James Cogswell, who ran a school a school for boys there before the Revolution and once had Benedict Arnold as a student.

Westminster Congregational Church (1770)

Faced with the long jorney from the western section of Canterbury to the Congregational church in the eastern part of town, outlying residents established the Second Congregational Church of Canterbury, called the Westminster Society, in 1769. A meetinghouse was soon built in 1769-1770, on land donated by John Parks for the Society for a community green, church and cemetery. Around 1840, the Westminster Congregational Church was significantly altered: originally facing east, it was rotated to face south and was remodeled in the Greek Revival style. During the hurricane of 1938, the church’s bell toppled out of the belfry and cracked. The church is therefore known as “the church of the broken bell.”

William Moore House (1803)

William Moore was a merchant and postmaster in Canterbury. His house, at the intersection of Routes 14 and 169 in Canterbury Center, was likely built by Plainfield builder Thomas Gibbs, who designed the former Congregational Church and several local houses in what is known as the “Canterbury Style.” The house, which once had a second-floor ballroom, has a dramatic projecting second-story pediment with Palladian window. The property was later owned by Marvin H. Sanger, a merchant, banker and politician, who served in the state legislature and then as Secretary of the State of Connecticut from 1873 to 1877. The house’s shed-roofed front porch dates to around 1920.

Samuel Pellet House (1752)

The Samuel Pellet House, on North Canterbury Road in Canterbury, was constructed around 1752. Samuel Pellet built the new house at the time of his second marriage, to Hannah Underwood. The couple planted two sycamore trees in front of the house, signifying husband and wife. One was lost in the 1938 hurricane, but the other survives today. According to tradition, Sarah Harris, Prudence Crandall’s first black student, worked as a servant in the house for a later owner. The house’s ell served as a post office from 1933 to 1944.