Town of New Canaan, Connecticut

ABOUT

The town center of North Canaan is locally known as Canaan. Canaan was built around where the former central New England Railroad east-west tracks connecting Hartford, Connecticut and Poughkeepsie, NY cross the active Housatonic Railroad north-south tracks connecting Danbury, Connecticut and Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Canaan Union Depot, completed in 1872, was build adjacent to this railroad intersection. The Canaan Union Depot is the largest Victorian railroad station in the United States. It has been restored after a fire in 2001 and is now open to the public.

The eastern portion of North Canaan is locally known was East Canaan. East Canaan is historically known for its iron industry and is today known for its dairy farm operations, limestone mines and bucolic character. The Beckley Furnace, built in 1847, is one of the few remaining iron blast furnaces that once operated in the tri-state area of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. The Beckley furnace was restored in the late 1990s and is now open to the public as the state of Connecticut's only industrial monument.