Ansel Bristol House (1810)

The house at 44 Cherry Brook Road in Canton was built c. 1810 by Ansel Bristol, a farmer. It was later home to Anson W. Bristol, Jr. A tradition holds that the carpenters who built the house came from working on the Canton Center Congregational Church, which would date the house to c. 1815. The house is also said to have floors that were reused from one of Canton’s earliest churches, dating to the seventeenth century. There is an ell that may have been added from earlier house, built in the middle of the eighteenth century by Isaac Tuller. The house is also said to have been home to the first telephone in Canton. (more…)

John Foote, Jr. House (1780)

A sign on the house at 360 Cherry Brook Road in Canton gives a date of 1743, but according to the Canton Sesquicentennial, 1806-1956, A Short History of Canton, p. 99, it was built about 1780 by John Foote, Jr. (1760-1803). His son, Lancel Foote (1790-1865), was chosen a deacon in the Congregational Church in 1839 and was superintendent of the Sunday School organized in 1819. Lancel Foote also held many town offices and was a representative to the state legislature.

Elisha Case House (1806)

Deacon Elisha Case (1755-1839) built the house at 45 Lawton Road in Canton in 1805-1806. Elisha Case is one of the founding fathers of the town of Canton because he signed the petition to make Canton a separate town from Simsbury in 1806. His house was later owned by George Mills, Newell Minor (c. 1855) and by 1869 by Wells Lawton (1830-1898), who married Eliza Higley. It was then the home of Wells’ son, Fred Lawton, who was born c. 1870. Lawton’s widow, Helen Gilbert Lawton, lived in the house for many years after his death. In 1919, Fred Lawton urged his friend, James Lowell, Sr., to purchase the Higley farm. Lowell would build the Canton Public Golf Course there in 1931.

Elijah Barber House (1800)

The house at 59 Barbourtown Road in Canton was built in 1800 by Elijah Barber (1748-1820). Elijah’s son, Daniel, raised the house higher and Daniel Hiram, a later owner, added an ell. In the 1830s, when there was a boom in raising silk worms, a silk worm house, or “cocoonery,” was erected on the property. In 1844 a disease struck the mulberry trees in Connecticut that fed the worms and the industry failed. The silk worm house was replaced by a barn, which later became a residence. Roy C. Webster, who had been a “Yankee Peddler” in his youth, bought the Barber House in 1926 and restored it.

Canton Center Schoolhouse (1849)

The first schoolhouse in Canton Center, called the Old Red School, was built in 1749. It was used until 1847, when it was moved to Collinsville and became a saloon. The building of a replacement was delayed by an argument over where to place the new school. The district was therefore divided into the Center and South Center districts. The South Center School House was built across the street from the Canton Center Congregational Church in 1848. The Center (also known as the North Center or Sisson) District School was erected in 1849 at 135 West Road. The schoolhouse was in used until 1942, when the Cherry Brook School was opened. The old school was then converted into a five-room residence by Mortimer R. Bristol (1892-1972).

Congregational Parsonage, Canton Center (1876)

In 1874, Linda Hosford left her property at 210 Cherry Brook Road in Canton to the Ecclesiastical Society of the First Congregational Church for a parsonage. An older house on the land, erected between 1787 and 1813 by Rev. Jeremiah Hallock (1756-1826), was torn down and the current house was built in 1876. The first minister to reside there, in 1877, was Rev. D. B. Hubbard. It is now a private home.

Reuben Barber House (1775)

The house at 117 Barbourtown Road in Canton was erected in 1775 by Reuben Barber (1751-1825), who served in the Revolutionary War. Barber donated the land for the Canton Center Cemetery, across the road from his house, and was the first person to be buried there. Reuben‘s son, Sadosa Barber, lived in the basement while his house nearby was being built. He quarried the stone to build the stairway outside. In 1820, Loin Humphrey remodeled and repaired the house for his son, Lorin Harmon Humphrey.