Around Town

New Canaan Now & Then: Center School

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Starting in 1795, classes for New Canaan’s School District No. 1 were held in a converted blacksmith’s shop on Park Street near where 63 Park Street now stands. Classes were then held in what is now 40 Seminary Street, but this building also proved to be inadequate. Eventually in 1853, a new school building was built on  the east side of Park Street somewhere between Cherry and Elm, but  before any classes could be held there, it burnt down. So for two years, classes were held in the Town House located at 13 Oenoke Ridge and is now the headquarters of the New Canaan Museum.

Around Town

New Canaan Now & Then: Vine Cottage

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According to Mary Louise King, 61 Main Street, or “Vine Cottage” was probably built in 1859 by the Sea Captain Sereno Ogden. 

Its history began with Edward Nash, a silversmith who came to New Canaan in 1809 and lived where Town Hall is today. Nash partnered with Stephen Hoyt, Jr. in Hoyt & Nash, the general store at the corner of Main Street and East Avenue. When Nash died in 1836, his homestead extended from Morse Court to the Red Cross building.  His daughter Hannah Nash inherited most of this property. When she died, she left the property to her young son Edward, but it was in the control of his guardian, her husband, Sereno Ogden.  

Mary Louise King speculates that Vine Cottage was built by Ogden for Albert Comstock, who ran a men’s clothing business, and his wife, Cornelia Carter.  Cornelia Carter Comstock was the founder of the Hannah Benedict Carter chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (it is named for her mother), and Albert Comstock was a founder of the Historical Society in 1889. The architectural changes, including Gothic additions and a front porch, were probably done in the 1860s by the Comstocks.  They sold the house with one acre to Stephen Pardee in 1871 for $4,500. “New Canaan Now & Then” is presented in partnership with the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society.

Now & Then

New Canaan Now & Then: Cody Pharmacy

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Samuel Silliman opened the first drug store in New Canaan on Main Street in 1845. Nine years later, Lucius Monroe purchased it and renamed it the New Canaan Drug store. Doctors came to dispense medicines and Monroe did, too. By the later part of the 19th century, the drug store had become something of a social center of the town. It had a soda fountain with a marble counter, home-made ice cream, round ice cream parlor tables and chairs, hair oil for men, women’s cosmetics, mortars and pestles, Magic Hoodoo Ant Paper, various powders and fragrances, bottles, stuffed birds, jars of rock candy and licorice, cigarettes, cigars, snuff, school supplies, and toilet paper.

Around Town

New Canaan Now & Then: Main and Cherry Streets

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The photographer here was C.E. Hilgert, looking north on Main Street ca. 1947. The stone wall is the one that now frames the parking lot. The Birdsall House used to sit on what is now the Morse Court parking lot in the center of New Canaan, bounded by Main Street, Cherry Street and South Avenue. Around 1872, the house was bought by Gilbert Birdsall who had developed the Third Avenue Railway in New York City. He operated the house as a hotel, tavern, and livery stable for many years before it was demolished in the 1950s.

Now & Then

New Canaan Now & Then: Main Street and Locust Avenue

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The shoe industry dominated New Canaan’s economy for more than a century. The first factory opened in 1768 on Brushy Ridge Road, but by the early 1800s there were numerous factories in the downtown area. At the height of production, New Canaan shoemakers produced 50,000 pairs per year. Five generations of the Benedict family created a shoe dynasty. At times, they employed as many as 100 people.  

The Big Shop located on the corner of Main Street and Locust Avenue was the factory and retail outlet for Benedict & Co. Sadly, the handmade shoes in New Canaan couldn’t keep up with the mechanized means of production in the factories in Massachusetts. By 1924, there were no shoe factories left. In the photo above, the columns of the 1868-built structure at 60 Main St.—known to many as the Knights of Columbus building, present-day home to Chef Prasad restaurant—can be seen through the trees at right. “New Canaan Now & Then” is presented in partnership with the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society.