We are asking for your help to save three early-1800s barns in the Canton Center Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Please sign and share this petition.

We, the undersigned, urge the Connecticut Historic Preservation Council to oppose the demolition of the barns at 225 Cherry Brook Road, Canton, Connecticut, by the current owners. These three outbuildings were listed on the National Register as contributing buildings to the Canton Center Historic District in 1997. They were once part of Humphrey’s Cherry Brook Farm, which remained in the Humphrey family for over 250 years beginning in 1742. A member of that family, Frederick Humphrey, wrote in 1997 in support of the farm being included in the National Register of Historic Places. Some of these buildings are the last example of their type in Canton and include, as described by Mr. Humphrey:

Dairy barn: “built around 1811 and of typical post and beam construction with five bays, has been added to lengthwise on two occasions.” 

Tobacco barn: “constructed in typical Connecticut Valley fashion, long and narrow, with a post and beam frame, and with six bents where the broad leaf tobacco was hung to dry.”

Engine House: contained a motor to operate a “hay fork rope heist” and run a grindstone to sharpen tools.

Of particular note is the tobacco barn. The Agricultural Census for Canton showed that 84 farmers were growing tobacco in Canton in 1880 – especially in the Cherry Brook Valley.  But you'd never know it now, because there are no tobacco barns left to tell the story – except for this last one that the owner wants to tear down. Canton Center was settled by Europeans in the mid-18th century for the purpose of raising crops, and its agricultural appearance is threatened by this proposed demolition. According to its National Historic Register listing:

“Barns with weathered wood siding, sheds, dairy barns and an occasional silo are seldom out of sight. Their contribution is as important to the district’s makeup as the open spaces.

“The total resource of farmland, associated buildings, and town-center cluster constitutes a good example of a well-preserved rural agricultural district in its entirety, unusual in Connecticut’s Central Valley Historic Context Region.”

In his 1997 letter, Frederick Humphrey wrote, “Cherry Brook Farm represents a vanishing American institution: the small New England farm. Its white Colonial house, red barn buildings, and the adjacent fields and woods all stand for an earlier era.”

Please sign and share this petition.

Please also consider writing a letter in support of preserving these barns. For details on the Canton Center Historic District and 225 Cherry Brook Rd., see the National Historic Register Archives.

Send your letter to:

Todd Levine

State Historic Preservation Office

450 Columbus Blvd., Suite 5

Hartford, CT 06103

 

Thank you,

Canton Advocates for Responsible Expansion, Inc.

www.carecantonct.org

C.A.R.E.’s mission is to encourage responsible economic development in Canton, while protecting its character, identity and quality of life.