Built around 1850, Canterbury‘s Center District School, on Canterbury Green, was a one-room schoolhouse, in use until 1947, although some kindergarten classes were held there in the 1950s. The building, also known as the Green Schoolhouse, was later used as the town’s library and, since 2002, has been restored by volunteers and furnished as an early 20th century district school.
Located on Library Road off Canterbury Green is the small center-chimney home built by Walter Brewster around 1787. Brewster was a clock-maker and a silversmith and goldsmith. In 1792, Brewster joined with other Connecticut artisans (including much more well-to-do ones, like the manufacturer Christopher Leffingwell of Norwich) in a huge petition drive protesting the state’s taxation system and the ruling gentry. In 1797, Walter Brewster sold his house to his brother, Abel Brewster, also a goldsmith, silversmith and pewterer who, according to A Modern History of New London County (1922),
“had a goldsmith shop on the meeting house green in Canterbury, Connecticut, where his brother, Walter Brewster, also lived. In the “Courier,” published at Norwich, April 3, 1799, J. Huntington & Co. advertise among other things, “Table and Tea Spoons made to any pattern by Abel Brewster of Canterbury, may be had of Huntington & Co., also orders for any kind of Goldsmith and Jewellry Articles left with them will be executed by said Brewster with neatness and dispatch. Norwich Port, March 26. 1799”
In November, 1804, he seems to have set up his shop in Norwich Landing, and advertises that he is now selling for the most reasonable prices in cash or approved notes, a variety of warranted middling and low prized watches, chains, seals, keys, warranted silver table, tea, salt and mustard spoons; sugar tongs, silver thimbles, a variety of fashionable gold ear rings, knobs, lockets, bosom pins, and finger rings; warranted gold necklaces of superior quality; ladies’ and gentlemen’s morocco pocket books; pen knives, most kinds of watch materials and a variety of other articles in his line. “N.B. All kinds of Watches repaired with the utmost punctuality and dispatch. Cash and the highest price given for old gold and silver.” On February 27, 1805, he advertises, “A SUCCESSOR WANTED—ABEL BREWSTER. Finding the care necessary in his business too great for the present state of his health, offers to dispose of his whole stock in Business, consisting of Watches, Furnishing Materials, Jewelry, Silver and Fancy Work, Tools, &c, &c. He thinks the call highly worthy the attention of some Gentleman of the profession. Also for sale, the house, shop and garden formerly occupied by him and beautifully situated on Canterbury Green.” In “The Courier” of April 3, 1805, he announces that “Having disposed of his business to Messrs Judah Hart and Alvin Wilcox, he requests all persons indebted to him (whose debts have become due) to make immediate payment without further notice.” He died in 1807, and the inventory of his estate included a small house and lot “in Swallowall” (now Franklin Square) in Norwich.
The day of the old-time gold or silversmith had nearly passed; much of the work was now done by machinery, and while spoons still continued to be occasionally made, yet seldom has a good specimen been found in this section of later-day work.”
Four successive Congregational church buildings have stood on the same spot on Canterbury Green for three hundred years. The church in Canterbury was established in 1711 and work then began on the first meeting house at the Green‘s highest point. The second meeting house was built in 1735 and the third in 1805. When it was destroyed by fire in 1963, the current church was constructed the following year.
In Finland, as elsewhere in Scandinavia, Halloween traditions that we are familiar with in America (costumes, trick-or-treating, jack o’-lanterns) have only recently begun to become more popular. Instead, Finn’s celebrate All Saints’ Day, on November 1, as a quiet celebration of those who have passed away. Why am I writing about Finland this Halloween? Because today’s building is the Finnish Hall in Canterbury. It was built in 1924 by the Finnish American Education Association as a social center for the Finnish community in Canterbury, which had one of the largest Finnish communities in the state (about a quarter of the town’s population were Finnish farmers). The building, which has been enlarged over the years, was renamed Sampo Hall when it was acquired in 1963 by a Finnish group known as the Sampo Club, named for the famous magical artifact from the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. In 1987, the Finnish American Heritage Society was formed to acquire and operate the building and has since constructed a new Heritage Center, with a library and research archives.
The Colonial house at 5 South Canterbury Road in Canterbury was built around 1765 for John Carter and originally had a full lean-to in the rear. In 1807, Nathan Adams, who operated Canterbury’s oldest corn mill, moved into the house. His son, Rufus Adams, was later a lawyer in town. In the early twentieth century, the town’s post office was located in the rear of the house.
The 1746 house of David Nevins, a merchant originally from Nova Scotia who settled in Canterbury, is located across from the Canterbury Green in the Canterbury Center Historic District. The house was built the same year that Nevins married Mary Lathrop, the daughter of Col. Simon Lathrop of Norwich. Nevins died in 1758, in circumstances described in the History of Norwich (1866), by Frances Manwaring Caulkins:
It was while engaged in repairing a bridge over the Quinebaug, between Canterbury and Plainfield, which had been partially destroyed in a severe freshet, that the first David Nevins of Connecticut lost his life. He was standing on one of the cross beams of the bridge, giving directions to the workmen, and had his watch in his hand, which he had just taken out to see the time, when, losing his balance, he fell into the swollen stream, was swept down by the current, and drowned before he could be rescued.
Nevins’ son, also named David, fought in the Revolutionary War. At different times, between 1842 and 1975, the house was used as a Parsonage for the nearby First Congregational Church. In the twentieth century, the house has undergone restoration, including the restoration of the chimney using stones found in the basement of the house.
Built around 1802 as an addition or replacement for an earlier home on the site, the house of Captain John Clark, on South Canterbury Road in Canterbury is, like the Prudence Crandall House, a prime example of the “Canterbury Style,” a regional development of the Georgian and Federal styles. Both of these houses are believed to have been designed by the same builder: Thomas Gibbs of Plainfield.
