Giles Hall House (1717)

In the early eighteenth century, English colonists were encroaching on the land of the Wangunk tribe in the area of Indian Hill in Portland. In 1716 the Connecticut General Assembly permitted Giles Hall, a mariner and shipbuilder, to purchase Wangunk land at Indian Hill, which he and others soon developed as a shipbuilding center. When Hall sold the land in 1739, there was a house at what is now 643 Main Street, which he may have built c. 1717, the same year he built a road to the Connecticut River through the Wangunk reservation to transport shipbuilding materials. It is possible that the current front of the house was constructed when it was the home of shipbuilder John Abby in the 1820s, with the rear section from 1717 forming an ell that was destroyed by fire in the early twentieth century.

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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.

Canaan Savings Bank (1952)

The Operations Center of the Salisbury Bank and Trust Company is located in a brick Colonial Revival building in the Village of Canaan in the Town of North Canaan. The building was erected in 1952 for the Canaan Savings Bank. It replaced an earlier building on the property, called the Cummings Building, that was destroyed by fire. A circa 1905-1910 postcard of that building shows that it then housed the Canaan Post Office, the F.R. Collin jewelry and watch store, and the Canaan Savings Bank.

Asa E. Perkins House (1835)

The history of the house at 584 Main Street in New Hartford is related in Sketches Of The People And Places Of New Hartford In The Past And Present (1883), by Henry R. Jones, where it is described as

a pretty two-story house, with a veranda on the south side and along the front of the ell part, the whole painted a pinkish tint. The house was built by Asa E. Perkins, a cabinet maker, who was well known in this town fifty years ago. He was a brother of Mrs Caleb C. Goodwin and Mrs Grove S. Marsh. Mr Perkins purchased the land of Richard B. Cowles in 1835, and probably built the house immediately after. He lived there a number of years, after which he removed to the hotel in this village, of which he was the proprietor a year or two, when he removed with his family to Michigan, where he died in 1882.

After Mr Perkins, the house was occupied by “Deacon” Wentworth for several years. L. Frank Fuller was its owner and occupant for some years; from his hands it became the property of Mr and Mrs Reed Anderson, an aged couple who resided there from the time of purchase in 1863 until their death. Mr Anderson died April 20, 1878, at the age of eighty-six, Mrs Anderson Oct. 14, 1880, aged eighty-three. Mr and Mrs Anderson came to this town from East Haddam. After the death of Mrs Anderson, the place was purchased by her sister, Mrs J. C. Smith, who immediately remodeled and enlarged it. The place was then used by the Cong’l society as a parsonage, and was occupied for several years by the pastor of that church, Rev Frederic H. Adams, the father of Dr. Walter B. Adams who married Anna L. Carter. Afterwards it was occupied by Wm. McAlpine, a tailor in town, and his family. In 1892 this place was purchased by Jacob Widmer, who was for many years a master machinist for the Greenwoods Company. Mr Widmer’s wife is the daughter of Mrs Anson J. Hawley of Town Hill. Mr and Mrs Widmer had three children, Frederick, who died in the South in 1894; Howard J. and Mary, twins, the latter the wife of Frank B. Munn, Esq., a lawyer practising in Winsted and New Hartford; Howard is a machinist, now working in Brooklyn, L. I. Mr Widmer carries on a jewelry and variety store in town.

Richard Crampton House (1757)

The house at 333 Scott Swamp Road (Route 6) in Farmington displays a date of 1757. According to Farmington’s Historic Resource Inventory, the house was built c. 1841. That was the year Adna Crampton (1773-1847), a farmer, sold the house to his son, Richard Crampton (1811-1885). Adna reserved part of the house for himself and for his wife Naomi after his death. After Richard’s death, the house was inherited by his daughters, Eugenia B. Ayer, who married Ezra C. Ayer (1829-1901) in 1874, and Ella J. Crampton. They sold the house in 1894.

Forestville Station (1881)

The Forestville Passenger Station is a former train station in the village of Forestville in Bristol. It was built in 1881 by the New York and New England Railroad and remained in service until 1960. According to local tradition, the building was prefabricated elsewhere and delivered to Forestville by rail. The station originally had a two-story tower over the east entrance and vestibule, but this was destroyed in a fire in 1900. It was replaced by the current platform shelter that extends out from the east end of the building. When it opened, the station had thirteen passenger rail stops a day, which contributed to the economic prosperity of the village. The Roberge Painting Company owns and restored the historic station.

Creamery Gallery (1893)

The original Canton Creamery, which is not related to the modern Canton Creamery at 465 Albany Turnpike, was a cooperative association, started in 1879, that sold milk and butter from local farms to retail dairies in Hartford and New Haven. Between 1893 and 1896, the operation was moved from its original location on West Road to the building at 150 Cherry Brook Road in Canton. The building‘s heavy concrete foundation was designed to support butter making equipment. The Canton Creamery Association came under new management in 1918 and dissolved in 1947/1982. More recently, the building has been the home of Canton Clay Works and the Creamery Gallery.