The Collins Company paid for the construction of the first Collinsville Congregational Church building in 1836. It was built as part of Collinsville, the village set up in South Canton by Samuel Collins for his workers. When the original church burned in 1857, the company again provided funds (added to the insurance settlement), as did Sam Collins and others in the village. The new Greek Revival-style Collinsville Congregational Church was completed in 1858.
Near the Alonzo Barber House, on Cherry Brook Road in Canton, is another Greek Revival-style home at #203. The exact date of construction is not known, although it appears on an 1869 map of Canton and one real estate website indicates a date of 1860, which would be quite late for a Greek Revival house. The long veranda is a later addition.
Alonzo Barber built a Greek Revival House at 193 Cherry Brook Road in Canton in 1843. He operated a general store in the rear of the house, which was continued after his death in 1853. Warren Humphrey, who purchased the home and business in 1862, eventually moved the store into a building across the road. The house is currently for sale.
The Collins Axe Company was started in South Canton (which later came to be known as Collinsville) in 1826. The company constructed a village to house and provide services to the workers and their original office building, built in 1830 on Front Street, included a school and space for religious services. In 1867, this structure was moved to the corner of River and North Street and divided into two units for employee housing. The new office building, constructed to replace the old one in 1868, also contained a post office, library, a third-floor hall with a stage, and space for the local DAR to meet. These rooms were eventually used for office space as the company expanded. The building is now used for various businesses, but the snow guards along the roof are still in the shape of the Collins Company trademark of crown, arm, and hammer.
At the corner where West Simsbury Road intersects with Cherry Brook Road in Canton stands the house (3 West Simsbury Road) built by Ezra Adams in 1795 (or perhaps as early as 1771). Adams had earlier lived on a tract across the road. The house has nails which were made in the Old Newgate Prison.
A separate Ecclesiastical Society for western Simsbury was established in 1750, although a meetinghouse was not constructed until 1763. In 1806, it became the First Ecclesiastical Society of Canton when that section of Simsbury was incorporated as its own town. In 1814, a second and larger meetinghouse was constructed on the site of the first, on Cherry Brook Road in Canton Center. In 1873, the church was remodeled inside and Gothic stained glass windows were added. Since 1967, the windows and interior have been restored to an approximation of the earlier style. The church’s address is 184 Cherry Brook Road.
Also, if you have not yet read my latest article on architecture, it is now available! The subject is Greek Revival Houses!
The building which now houses the LaSalle Market, on Main Street in Collinsville (in Canton) is a late nineteenth century commercial building with projecting eaves and brackets in the Italianate style. A picture from the 1890s survives showing various businesses in operation, including a meat market and a boots and shoe store. The LaSalle Market began in the 1970s on LaSalle Road in West Hartford and moved to Collinsville in 1984.
