Canaan Early Garage

Edwin Booth Stone, a successful businessman, town and state official established one of the early garages in Canaan on Railroad Street, now the location of Ilse Coffee.

This picture shows the business, established in 1917 three years after the Brooklyn CT native moved to town. It depicts a Ford Service Station in the barn at the rear of the lot with a modest office in the foreground with one Socony gas pump.

Stone dealt in Mobile and Firestone products and advertised a “comfort station,” undoubtedly a welcome addition for travelers. Immediately next to his station was a small restaurant.

Today, a brick building occupies the lot, probably built in the early 1930s by Anthony Boscardin.

Stone operated the business for 37 years, retiring in 1954 at which time he sold the location to James Mather who operated it as Jim’s Garage until the 1970s, a name it continued under subsequent ownership by the Hower family.

Stone was first selectman in Canaan from 1951-1953 and served as a representative to the state legislature for a number of years. He died in 1963 at age 81.