Neri Case House (1848)

The house at 529 Cherry Brook Road in Canton was erected circa 1848 by Neri Case (1803-1890). In the 1869 Atlas of Hartford and Tolland Counties the house is labeled as the property of L. Case. This was Lucius Case (1819-1894), Neri’s son-in-law. From 1937 until 1958, the house served as the North Canton post office. At the time it was the residence of Mrs. Ruth Vining Gracy, who was the postmaster. She continued in that role after the current North Canton Post Office building at 531 Cherry Brook Road was opened in 1958, retiring in 1967. The post office had previously been located in the Adams House at 4 West Simsbury Road, the previous postmaster being Gracy’s aunt, Mary Vining Adams. Gracy was active in the Cherry Brook Grange and the North Canton Methodist Church. She wrote a poem about the wedding of Dorothy Bahre and Richard Wright on Christmas Eve, 1939 when the church caught fire! She also wrote historical articles in the magazine The Lure of the Litchfield Hills about the church and the North Canton schools. Her son Forrest Gracy served as a U.S. Marine in the South Pacific during World War II.