Canaan Union Station (1872)

The Housatonic Railroad was established in 1836 as a route between Bridgeport and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A right-of-way for the railroad passed through what is now the Town of North Canaan, where Canaan village would develop around the new railroad station. That original station was in the Warner-Canfield Hotel building, which stood on the east side of the tracks and fronted on Main Street. In 1872, a new Italianate-style train station was erected on the south side of the tracks. Called Canaan Union Depot, it was built as a collaboration of the Housatonic Railroad and a new east-west line, the Connecticut Western Railroad (later acquired by the Central New England Railroad), which intersected the Housatonic line in the center of the village. Both rail lines would eventually come under the control of the New York New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The depot had a large restaurant on the first floor, an important feature in the era before dining cars. Rail service ended in the early 1970s, and the station became a retail center, which included a railway-themed restaurant. Rail service (for freight and excursions, but not regular passenger service, yet) resumed after a new Housatonic Railroad was chartered in 1983. The southeast half of the building, including the original tower, was destroyed by arson on October 12, 2001. The Connecticut Railroad Historical Association purchased the structure in 2003 and began a rebuilding of the historic station, which was dedicated in 2018.