New Canaan Now & Then: ‘White Oak Shade District’ Antique

Carey Weed, born in Stamford in 1782, settled on a farm in what was then called the White Oak Shade District.  

He was a soldier in the War of 1812. With his second wife, Hannah Reed, he had a son, Andrew J. Weed, who was born August 19, 1819.  

Like his father, Andrew was both a farmer and a shoemaker.  Andrew married Betsey Banks, from Easton, and they lived and ran his father’s farm on White Oak Shade.  Andrew and Betsey had five children – Clarissa, Mary, Henry, John, and Freddie, whom they raised in their house at #33 (listed today as #51). According to tax records, the four-bedroom house has been owned by just four families since the bicentennial of 1976, when it was sold for $137,000. The town in 2003 issued permits to demolish a garage and reassemble a barn on the 1.07-acre property. “New Canaan Now & Then” is presented in partnership with the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society.

New Canaan Now & Then: Main Street, 1987

Pictured here is Main Street from 1987. The Town Sign, which still hangs in front of Town Hall, is one of 18 forged by Clifton Meek at the Silvermine Forge in 1936. Rosen Bros. was a grocery store located at 80 Main Street that opened in 1930 and closed in 1986. The New Canaan Museum & Historical Society has a pair of art deco light fixtures that once hung in the market, each made from a single piece of glass, along with an early GE Mazda light bulb. These items are three of the thousands of objects and documents kept in the Museum’s climate controlled vault.

[Editor: This is the debut installment of “New Canaan Now & Then,” a new standing feature presented in partnership with the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society.]

‘Pink Pills for Pale People’: A History of Cody’s Drug Store

[Editor’s Note: This local history article by New Canaan Historical Society volunteer Gordon T. Walker is the first in a series to appear monthly on NewCanaanite.com.]

Most New Canaanites know about Cody’s Drug Store, which operated continuously in town from 1845 until it was demolished in 1965 for the widening of Main Street. James Cody and his family operated the store from 1918 until its demolition. The store’s contents and many of the fixtures were donated to the New Canaan Historical Society, which created a new wing for the reconstruction of what had become a beloved town landmark. Today, Cody’s Drug Store is the most well known and popular of its many exhibits and relocated historic buildings. 

In its early days, the drug store was operated by Samuel Silliman, who was also the Town Clerk. The selectmen, perhaps being of like party affiliation, authorized him “to sell spirituous and intoxicating liquors at his drug store… for sacramental, medicinal, chemical and mechanical uses only.” Unfortunately, the Sons of Temperance, no doubt concerned about the definition of “medicinal,” successfully petitioned the town to rescind Silliman’s license.

Op-Ed: Remembrances of Bristow Bird Sanctuary

As a young child in New Canaan after WWII, I had the privilege of living in the Justus Hoyt House on Main Street, where my mother and grandfather had been born, as well as generations of Hoyts dating back to 1770. The house stood directly opposite New Canaan Library. A bonus of living there was that my grandfather’s flower shop and greenhouses—S.B. Hoyt Florists Est.1908—was next door. My grandparents, Stephen and Anna Hoyt, lived on a property adjoining ours that fronted on East Maple Street. I had aunts and uncles and cousins up and down East Maple Street and Hoyt Street. One of the perks of being frequently in my grandfather’s orbit, is that when he made trips to the New Canaan Bird Sanctuary and Wildwood Preserve he would often invite me along. The Preserve was both a sanctuary and a mission to “Grampy Hoyt” who, as president of the Bird Protective Society of New Canaan, had solicited the funds from Mrs. Barend van Gerbig and other concerned citizens to purchase and fence the 16.8-acre property in 1923. Once through the entrance gate to this haven, my grandfather would engage in conversation with Clinton Bartow, the caretaker, leaving me to explore.