This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
The state Department of Public Health data recently showed that 1,053 people reside in the town of Canaan, though 1,055 residents had been vaccinated against COVID.
The problem, according to DPH spokesperson Chris Boyle, came down to “a methodological issue that makes it difficult to differentiate between Canaan and North Canaan residents.”
It’s actually a problem that goes back to before the U.S. Civil War, and one locals are not too keen to solve.
The town of North Canaan split from Canaan in 1858, but North Canaan residents still refer to their town as “Canaan.” People who live in Canaan call their town “Falls Village,” which is actually just a hamlet inside the town of Canaan.
East Canaan has its own post office, but is a part of North Canaan. There’s also a section of Canaan called “Canaan Valley,” and they all get confused with New Canaan, about two hours to the south.
The problem, according to North Canaan town historian Kathryn Boughton, is when out-of-towners try to get it straight. She said the people who live in these towns do actually know where they live.
“Everybody is pretty sure where they live, except those people who come into the area and refer to Canaan as 'Canaan' and not 'Falls Village,'” she said. “You can always tell a newcomer by how they refer to the town.”
There is, of course, a lot of mail going to the wrong places.
“It's a source of endless confusion to our good state,” Boughton said. “If you send a letter to North Canaan, and then you put down ‘N. Canaan’ or even ‘No.,’ somehow the post office can't get it straight and you're likely to send your letter to New Canaan, which is clear the opposite side of the state.”
Though he did note that the state had been attributing COVID cases to North Canaan that he knew lived in Canaan, it’s not that big of an issue, according to North Canaan First Selectman Charles Perotti, beyond some mistakes with the mail.
More for you
“Once in a while, we’ll get some mail for them and vice versa,” he said. “I live in East Canaan, so I put in East Canaan, which is part of North Canaan.”
Canaan First Selectman Henry Todd also blamed the post office. North Canaan has two branches, one labeled “East Canaan” and the other simply “Canaan.” The town of Canaan has a single post office, the Falls Village branch.
“It’s just one of those historical little things,” he said. “All of our residents seem to get home at night. It’s just one of those anomalies. We just live it.”
New Canaan, about 80 miles to the south in Fairfield County, does not owe its existence to those towns to the north, but it does owe them its name.
“I know that New Canaan became ‘New Canaan’ because there already was a Canaan,” said Nancy Geary, director of the New Canaan Museum and Historical Society.
As for why the towns of North Canaan and Canaan divided, though Todd said “no one really knows what the great schism was all about,” Boughton believes it came down to convenience.
“The original town of Canaan was almost completely bisected by Canaan Mountain,” she said.
When the town was first settled, that mountain meant a family had to climb all the way uphill to go to church, school or the library.
“They put the town hall there because it was the only point really that was fair to both sides,” she said. “It was extremely inconvenient for people to get to town meetings, they used to alternate town meetings between the two municipalities at somebody's house, so that every other meeting, you had to trek all the way to North Canaan, or you had to trek all the way down into Falls Village.”
The process of separation began decades before the towns officially split, when new churches were built in 1824. A new town hall was finally built in 1859, but the old names persist to this day. During interviews, Perotti, Todd and Boughton referred to North Canaan as “Canaan,” before correcting themselves.
“They argued for decades over the library,” she said. “When they finally agreed to separate, Canaan bought the books, North Canaan bought the books and paid Falls Village what they were worth.”
There have been fixes proposed, but Boughton said everyone seems to like it just the way it is.
“Since the towns divided, every now and then people talk about changing the names and whatnot, but I don't think there's the stomach for it, really,” she said.
Todd agreed. “Everyone I’ve talked to said it’s just a bridge too far,” he said.
“I don’t want to waste two years of my time fighting to change a name only to find out it’s impossible,” Todd said.
As for why there are so many places called “Canaan,” Geary believes it’s because of the meaning. Etymologically, the word derives from Hebrew and is found in the Old Testament.
“Canaan means the ‘promised land,’” she said.
860-261-4405
Service Areas
