Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Lace House, the Red Rock Schoolhouse and the Red Rock Monument. Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1873 on and old-book passages.
The Canaan post office opened in 1814, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Canaan Centre (1830), Red Rock (1832) and Flatbrook (1844), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Canaan is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Canaan’s 16.8 sits near the middle of its state (53% of New York towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Canaan’s history is told.
Canaan’s post office has been open since 1814. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia’s history of Canaan.
The first settlers arrived around 1759. The town was founded in 1772 as "Kings District". The name was changed to "Canaan" in 1788. One of the oldest sections of Canaan is Frisbie Street, settled in 1770 by Gideon Frisbie, an immigrant from Canaan, Connecticut. Frisbie Street fronts what was once the Albany-Boston stagecoach route.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Canaan, cut from the printed page as they were published.
of Canaan Union Academy the interest on the notes given by them to the Treasurer of the town of Canaan or to the agent of said town. ' ' They also voted : ' ' That said notes be given up to said proprietors when they make and deliver to said town of Canaan a deed of academy land and buildings thereon, owned by said proprietors." This led to an outburst of wrath and indignation, seldom equalled and never excelled, against the men who had borrowed the public money and had attempted by a
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
presented it to the governor, followed on December 3, 1768, by a petition of George Harris in behalf of himself and the other grantees, praying for a new grant of the township : A memorial of the Proprietors of the Township of Canaan in sd Province humbly represents that your Excellency memorialists having obtained A Royal Charter of the sd Township of Canaan Did A number of them soon begin A Town in the second range, & the Town between!
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
date. The natural boundary made by the river, soon led the people to aim at a separation from Bloomfield, and the inconvenient size of the town of Canaan, after the separation from Bloomfield, caused the people to aim at the erection of a new town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereDaniel Cady is born here
Born hereElias W. Leavenworth is born here
BuiltLace House is built
Born hereCharles Lewis Beale is born here
In the archiveAncram (Village); Canaan Four Corners (Village); Spencertown (Village); Austerlitz (Villa…
In the archiveCanaan (NY) station, 19042 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Canaan’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Canaan post office opened in 1814, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Canaan is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Three places: the Lace House (listed 1985), the Red Rock Schoolhouse (2022) and the Red Rock Monument (2025).
44% of Canaan’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1953.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1873
2021
2008