Around Town

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

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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.

Around Town

New Canaan Now & Then: Main Street, 1987

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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.]