The northern half of old Canaan, on the Massachusetts line, where Squire Forbes hammered ship anchors on the Blackberry River, East Canaan's furnaces and kilns made iron and lime, and Canaan village grew up around the depot where two railroads crossed.

Litchfield County · Record checked October 11, 2026

3,211Population2020 census1
1858Became a townset off from the town of Canaan1
40 ftBeckley Furnacestone blast furnace built in 18472
2 tonsForbes anchorsthe heaviest, hauled to Boston by ox team3
5National Registerplaces, all still standing4

North Canaan on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of North Canaan, Connecticut in 2026, with Canaan village, East Canaan, Canaan Valley, Sodom and 24 numbered landmarks

2026

North Canaan today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Canaan village in the west to East Canaan and Canaan Valley in the east, every street, the town line, and a guide of 24 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of North Canaan

Anchors on the Blackberry

Samuel Forbes came to Canaan as a boy and became a blacksmith like his father. His first forge stood on "the island," a few yards east of his house on the Blackberry River. Ship anchors made there weighed from half a ton to two tons, hammered out by men swinging sledges as heavy as 56 pounds, and teams of up to six yoke of oxen hauled them to Boston, a round trip of a month to six weeks. Forbes also built a slitting mill that cut iron bars into nail rods, and an 1895 writer says only two others in the country were running when it was built. Ethan Allen was his partner in the Salisbury ore beds and, for a time, his bookkeeper. Tradition says part of the great chain across the Hudson was forged here too.637

The doorstep on Elm Street

Isaac Lawrence was among the first settlers, and in 1751 he built the house that still stands on Elm Street, just north of the Blackberry River. For years it was a tavern where the stages stopped on their way to Hartford, Poughkeepsie and Albany, and many local meetings were held inside. In 1895 the iron lantern frame still hung over the front door. Under that door lay a broad stone doorstep carved with the names of Captain Lawrence, his wife and their eleven children. Nathaniel Hawthorne saw it in 1838 and wrote that it was odd to put a family record where it was sure to be trampled underfoot. When the house was listed on the National Register in 1983, Lawrence's descendants still owned it.89

Iron and lime in East Canaan

John Adam Beckley built his stone blast furnace beside the Blackberry in 1847 to make pig iron. In 1858, the year North Canaan became a town, Barnum, Richardson and Company bought it. They bought the Forbes furnace in 1862 and built a third at East Canaan in 1872. In 1895 the company's three furnaces here could turn out about 40 tons of charcoal iron a day. By the summer of 1898 only No. 3 at East Canaan was still in blast, and Beckley's furnace went cold in 1919. Lime outlasted the iron. Five companies were burning it in 1895, and the Canfield brothers alone shipped more than thirty thousand barrels a year. Marble from East Canaan went into the State Capitol in Hartford.21011121314

Through the years

25 moments from 1738 to today.

  1. 1738The township of Canaan, which then took in today's North Canaan, is sold at auction in New London.9
  2. 1740Daniel and Isaac Lawrence bring their families to look over the land.9
  3. 1751Isaac Lawrence builds his house on what is now Elm Street, later a stagecoach tavern.8
  4. 1754Samuel Forbes, a blacksmith, builds the saltbox that becomes the Forbes Homestead.6
  5. 1762Forbes and Ethan Allen start a blast furnace in Lakeville.6
  6. 1769Eleven members of Canaan's First Church form a church of their own in the second society, today's North Canaan.15
  7. 1800The Hartford-Albany Turnpike opens and brings more trade to the Lawrence tavern.8
  8. 1805Pitkin Cowles begins a 28-year ministry, and one revival adds 100 members.15
  9. 1838Nathaniel Hawthorne notes the carved family doorstep at the Lawrence tavern.9
  10. 1840Charles Barnes' Sons go into the lime business, the oldest of the town's lime firms by 1895.11
  11. 1847John Adam Beckley builds his blast furnace on the Blackberry River.2
  12. 1858North Canaan is incorporated as its own town.1
  13. 1858Barnum, Richardson and Company buy the Beckley furnace.10
  14. 1872The Union Depot goes up where the Housatonic and Connecticut Western railroads cross.16
  15. 1872Barnum, Richardson and Company build a third furnace at East Canaan.10
  16. 1874A bag of gunpowder meant for a storekeeper's house goes off at the look-alike parsonage next door in East Canaan, doing little damage.17
  17. 1887The town has 1,803 people, and its main trades are farming, pig iron and lime.18
  18. 1891The Canfield brothers start burning and shipping lime in East Canaan.13
  19. 1898Only one of the Barnum, Richardson furnaces is still in blast, No. 3 at East Canaan.12
  20. 1919The Beckley Furnace makes its last iron.2
  21. 1946The Beckley Furnace site becomes a state park.2
  22. 1971Passenger trains stop calling at the Union Depot.16
  23. 1990The Canaan Village Historic District is listed on the National Register.19
  24. 2001An arson fire destroys more than half of the Union Depot.16
  25. 2021An accordion museum of more than 400 instruments moves into the restored depot.16

Places to see

The numbers match the landmark guide printed on the 2026 map.

  • 6Canaan Union DepotCanaan village. Where the two railroads crossed, 1872.
  • 7Housatonic State ForestNorth and east. State forest reaching into six towns.Visit their website
  • 12North Canaan Congregational ChurchEast Canaan. The church of the second society.
  • 13Douglas LibraryMain Street. Queen Anne house, library since 1926.Visit their website
  • 14Beckley FurnaceLower Road. Stone blast furnace of 1847.Visit their website
  • 18Isaac Lawrence HouseElm Street. Settler's house and tavern of 1751.
  • 19Canaan Colonial TheaterRailroad Street. Columned portico, ballroom and bowling alley.
  • 20Samuel Forbes HomesteadLower Road. The ironmaster's saltbox of about 1754.
  • 22Canaan Village Historic DistrictCanaan village. About 93 acres of village center.
  • 24Connecticut Railroad Historical MuseumCanaan village. Railroad history by the depot.

On the National Register

All 5 places in North Canaan on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Isaac Lawrence House

    Built 1751 · Listed 1983 · Elm Street

    Built by one of the first settlers, it was a farmhouse and a tavern where many local meetings were held, and the Hartford-Albany Turnpike brought it more trade after 1800. Digs in 1979 and 1980 found well-layered artifacts from the first years of settlement.8

  • Samuel Forbes Homestead

    Built about 1754 · Listed 1992 · 89 Lower Road

    Home of Samuel Forbes, a leader of the northwest Connecticut iron industry who ran the Lakeville furnace for the state during the Revolution. His family kept the house until 1955.6

  • Beckley Furnace

    Built 1847 · Listed 1978 · Lower Road

    A 40-foot stone blast furnace that made pig iron from 1847 to 1919, with its dam, slag piles and the remains of other furnaces along the Blackberry River. The state restored the stack in 1999.2

    Visit their website

  • Canaan Village Historic District

    Listed 1990 · Roughly bounded by West Main, Bragg, and Orchard Streets and Granite Avenue

    About 93 acres of the business district and nearby houses, from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, when the meeting of two railroads made Canaan a regional market town.19

  • Union Depot

    Built 1872 · Listed 1972 · U.S. Route 44

    A union station at the crossing of the Housatonic and Connecticut Western railroads, with a three-story telegraph tower and a large restaurant. Half of it burned in 2001, and the Connecticut Railroad Historical Association restored what was left.16

In their words

“Squire Samuel Forbes was the original "iron prince," and pioneer in the iron industry in this section.”

The Scrap Book of North Canaan, as quoted in the History of Norfolk, 19003

“Canaan does not forget that the marble with which it is built came from one of her inexhaustible quarries.”

Mary Geikie Adam, The Connecticut Quarterly, 1895, on the State Capitol11

“Our scenery is fine, the drives beautiful, as Mother Nature has been generous to Northern Connecticut.”

Mary Geikie Adam, The Connecticut Quarterly, 189511

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. North Canaan, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. Beckley Furnace Industrial Monument, Wikipedia
  3. History of Norfolk, Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1744-1900 (1900), on the Forbes anchor works, Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of North Canaan, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. Samuel Forbes Homestead, Wikipedia
  7. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), Mary Geikie Adam, "Canaan," on Squire Forbes, Internet Archive
  8. Isaac Lawrence House, Wikipedia
  9. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), Mary Geikie Adam, "Canaan," on the first settlers and the Lawrence tavern, Internet Archive
  10. Genealogical and family history of the state of Connecticut (1911), on the Barnum, Richardson Company, Internet Archive
  11. The Connecticut quarterly (1895), Mary Geikie Adam, "Canaan," on iron, lime and marble, Internet Archive
  12. The Connecticut magazine (1899), "Iron mining in Connecticut," Internet Archive
  13. Biographical review: Litchfield County, Connecticut (1896), on Wallace Canfield, Internet Archive
  14. Connecticut State Capitol, Wikipedia
  15. Contributions to the ecclesiastical history of Connecticut (1861), on the church in North Canaan, Internet Archive
  16. Canaan Union Depot, Wikipedia
  17. The bench and bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909 (1909), on the Bion case, Internet Archive
  18. A History of Connecticut (1887), Internet Archive
  19. Canaan (village), Connecticut, Wikipedia