A quiet hill town on the Housatonic, known to most as Falls Village, where Huntsville forges once hammered anchors for the Navy and a string quartet has played on Music Mountain every summer since 1930.

Litchfield County · Record checked October 8, 2026

1,080Population2020 census1
1739Became a towna year after the land was sold at auction1
1858North Canaan split offthe old town's northern half2
8Iron, early 1800sforges, with seven anchor shops and two furnaces3
6National Registerplaces, all still standing4

Canaan on the map

Click the map to look closer.

Map of Canaan, Connecticut in 2026, with Falls Village, Music Mountain, the South Canaan Congregational Church and 19 numbered landmarks

2026

Canaan today

By KNOWOL

Shaded hills from Pine Grove down to the Housatonic River, roads from South Canaan Road to Canaan Mountain Road, Falls Village, South Canaan, Huntsville, Lower City and Pine Grove by name, and a guide of 19 numbered landmarks with the National Register sites marked.5

See the 2026 printMore about this map

The story of Canaan

Anchors for the Navy

Long before it was quiet, Canaan rang with hammers. Early in the 1800s the old town had eight forges, seven anchor shops and two furnaces working iron from Salisbury, and its limekilns shipped lime away to market. In Huntsville, Russell Hunt and his four sons made iron anchors for the United States Navy. A magazine of 1904 said the forges and foundries of Falls Village supplied the Navy for years with shot and shell, heavy anchors and chain cables. During the Civil War Oliver Ames, an iron maker there, built heavy cannon from iron rings welded one onto another. Money followed the iron, and in 1847 the village got a bank of its own, named, fittingly, the Iron Bank of Falls Village.3678

Mass under the apple tree

When the Housatonic Railroad picked Falls Village as a stop in the early 1830s, a village grew up around the station, and a canal was dug in 1851 to use the power of the Great Falls. Iron brought workers. A 1925 history says the Ames iron works employed no fewer than 800 men, and in 1850 Falls Village got its own Catholic pastor, Rev. Christopher Moore. His people first heard Mass in private houses, then in the schoolhouse at Amesville. One Sunday morning in June they found the door locked against them, so they held the service in the shade of an apple tree on Beebe Hill. By the 1890s the railroad's machine shops at Falls Village had a general foreman of their own.91011

Colonel Burrall of South Canaan

Charles Burrall was one of Canaan's first settlers, and he rose from ensign to colonel. In 1776 Congress asked him to raise a battalion of 800 men and march them to Canada. The campaign failed, and he fell so sick at Mount Independence that his son carried him home over Lake George in a boat and then by covered wagon, on a bed. He lived to be one of Connecticut's delegates in 1788 when the state ratified the Constitution, though the illness he caught in the war stayed with him until his death in 1803. Across Barnes Road from the 1804 meetinghouse, the Burrall-Belden House still stands, and from 1919 to 1925 it was tied to the photographer Clarence H. White.121314

Through the years

23 moments from 1738 to today.

  1. 1738The land is sold at auction in New London as part of the Western Lands sale.15
  2. 1738Isaac Lawrence reaches the old town on June 2 after nine days cutting through the woods by ox cart.16
  3. 1739Canaan becomes a town, and David Whitney is named to call the first town meeting.17
  4. 1740About this year Timothy Holabird builds the oldest part of the Holabird House.18
  5. 1752Rev. Elisha Webster, Canaan's first minister, leaves the town.19
  6. 1762Most of the Church of Christ of Canaan votes to move to Stillwater, New York.20
  7. 1776Col. Charles Burrall marches a battalion of Canaan men to Canada.12
  8. 1779The Assembly drops the case against Benjamin Benedict Jr., prosecuted for taking smallpox by inoculation.21
  9. 1788Colonel Burrall is a delegate to the convention that ratifies the U.S. Constitution.12
  10. 1804The South Canaan Congregational Church goes up near the center of the old town.14
  11. 1814John Pierce Brace walks through in a November snowstorm and notes the good lime made in Canaan.22
  12. 1847The Iron Bank of Falls Village is founded.8
  13. 1850Falls Village gets a Catholic pastor, serving iron workers in a parish that reaches to Sharon and Cornwall.10
  14. 1851A canal is dug to use the water power of the Great Falls.9
  15. 1858North Canaan becomes its own town.2
  16. 1860sOliver Ames, an iron maker at Falls Village, builds heavy Civil War cannon from welded iron rings.7
  17. 1871The Pine Grove camp meeting is formally established.23
  18. 1891The David M. Hunt Library is built in Falls Village.9
  19. 1892The New Haven road takes over the Housatonic Railroad and its shops at Falls Village.11
  20. 1919The photographer Clarence H. White's years at the Burrall-Belden House begin.13
  21. 1930Jacques Gordon founds Music Mountain as the home of his Gordon String Quartet.24
  22. 1939Housatonic Valley Regional High School opens, the first regional high school in New England.5
  23. 1979The Falls Village District is listed on the National Register.9

Places to see

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

  • 1Town GreenFalls Village. The green at the village center.
  • 2Holabird HouseKellog Road. Timothy Holabird's house of about 1740.
  • 3Music MountainMusic Mountain Road. Summer string quartets since 1930.Visit their website
  • 5Falls Village DistrictFalls Village. 71 buildings and the old canal.
  • 6David M. Hunt LibraryFalls Village. The village library, built 1891.Visit their website
  • 10Housatonic Valley Regional High SchoolSalmon Kill and the Housatonic. New England's first regional high school.Visit their website
  • 11Dean's RavineSouthwest of town. A wooded ravine in the hills.
  • 13Canaan Town HallFalls Village. Seat of town government.
  • 17Canaan Historical SocietyRailroad Street. Museum in the old train depot.Visit their website
  • 19South Canaan Congregational ChurchRoute 63 and Barnes Road. The Bulfinch-style meetinghouse of 1804.Visit their website

On the National Register

All 6 places in Canaan on the National Register of Historic Places that still stand today, oldest first, and why each one matters.4

  • Holabird House

    Built about 1740 · Listed 1982 · Kellog Road, corner of Route 126

    Timothy Holabird, one of Canaan's earliest settlers, built the oldest part. It's one of the town's oldest surviving buildings and a well preserved Georgian house with a central chimney, plainer outside than in.18

  • Burrall-Belden House

    Listed 2018 · 6 Barnes Road

    An early South Canaan house listed for its architecture, its place in the town's settlement from 1740 to 1838, and its link to the photographer Clarence H. White from 1919 to 1925.13

  • South Canaan Congregational Church

    Built 1804 · Listed 1983 · Route 63 and Barnes Road

    One of three Connecticut churches modeled on a Bulfinch church of 1793 in Pittsfield, it stood near the center of the old town before North Canaan split off. Its Federal woodwork inside is remarkably well kept.14

    Visit their website

  • Falls Village District

    Listed 1979 · Route 126

    About 70 acres built up after the Housatonic Railroad chose Falls Village as a stop in the early 1830s. It holds 71 Greek Revival, Italianate and Queen Anne buildings, the D. M. Hunt Library of 1891, and the unused canal of 1851.9

  • Canaan Pine Grove Association Camp Meeting

    Established 1871 · Listed 2021 · Address restricted

    A Methodist campground with 55 cottages, a chapel and a community house. By the late 1870s it drew as many as 10,000 visitors, and the Housatonic Railroad ran a seasonal station for them.23

  • Music Mountain

    Built 1930 · Listed 1987 · Music Mountain Road

    Gordon Hall is built long and narrow like a violin, with about 350 seats. The four houses around it, each named for an instrument of the string quartet, are mail order buildings from Sears, Roebuck and Company.24

    Visit their website

In their words

“The forges and foundries in Falls Village in Litchfield County not only supplied the United States Navy for many years with shot and shell”

The Connecticut magazine, 19047

“a great deal of good lime made in Canaan”

John Pierce Brace, walking from Litchfield to Sheffield in November 181422

“He went in pursuit of money and he got it.”

The bench and bar of Litchfield County, 1909, on the South Canaan and Falls Village lawyer George Washington Peet25

Nearby towns

Sources

  1. Canaan, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  2. North Canaan, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  3. An introduction to the history of Connecticut as a manufacturing state (1915), Internet Archive
  4. National Register of Historic Places listings in Litchfield County, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  5. Map of Canaan, Connecticut in 2026, KNOWOL (USGS elevation, Census Bureau roads)
  6. Men of progress, Connecticut (1898), on Charles K. Hunt of Huntsville, Internet Archive
  7. The Connecticut magazine (1904), on the forges of Falls Village, Internet Archive
  8. An historical sketch of Salisbury, Connecticut (1899), on the Iron Bank, Internet Archive
  9. Falls Village, Connecticut, Wikipedia
  10. History of Connecticut in monographic form (1925), on the Catholic church at Falls Village, Internet Archive
  11. Men of progress, Connecticut (1898), on I. H. Lyman and the Falls Village shops, Internet Archive
  12. A catalogue of the names of the early Puritan settlers of the colony of Connecticut (1852), on Col. Charles Burrall, Internet Archive
  13. Burrall-Belden House, National Register record 100003146, National Park Service
  14. South Canaan Congregational Church, Wikipedia
  15. Canaan, ConnecticutHistory.org
  16. Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut (1901), on Isaac Lawrence, Internet Archive
  17. The public records of the colony of Connecticut (1850), on the founding of Canaan, Internet Archive
  18. Holabird House, Wikipedia
  19. History and genealogy of the Gov. John Webster family of Connecticut (1915), on Rev. Elisha Webster, Internet Archive
  20. Stephens-Stevens genealogy (1909), on the church's move to Stillwater, Internet Archive
  21. The public records of the State of Connecticut (1894), on Benjamin Benedict Jr., Internet Archive
  22. More chronicles of a pioneer school, from 1792 to 1833 (1927), John Pierce Brace's journal, Internet Archive
  23. Canaan Pine Grove Association Camp Meeting, Wikipedia
  24. Music Mountain Summer Chamber Music Festival, Wikipedia
  25. The bench and bar of Litchfield County, Connecticut, 1709-1909 (1909), on George Washington Peet, Internet Archive