Small Towns: Falls Village, CT

Falls Village fits anyone’s definition of a small town. It’s located in a relatively unexplored section of northwestern Connecticut, the Litchfield Hills. That’s the name given to the Connecticut extension of the western Berkshires. The latter, in Massachusetts, have such an exalted reputation that it’s hard to compete. Officially, it’s the northeast part of Connecticut that carries the moniker of the “quiet corner,” but Torrington’s population of 36,383 easily makes it the largest town in Litchfield County. That’s a metropolis compared to Falls Village, a hamlet of just 538 souls. It is indeed a quiet place.  

Falls Village is actually part of North Canaan, but if we add it to that town and Canaan Village, you collectively have just 3,315 residents. The Canaans are the first town one enters west of Sheffield, Massachusetts, and the center of the main town feels more like an ex-town. That is, it’s pretty much hollowed out of anything other than essentials and parts of it are a down-market contrast to what one encounters in New Yorker summer towns such as Great Barrington, just 19 miles distant. Canaan does have an its old railroad depot, which houses a small museum and the Great Falls Brewing Company. 

 

Falls Village is leafy, quiet, and appears more prosperous than the rest of Canaan. Because of COVID, not much was going on when we visited a few weeks ago, but there is a nice-looking craft studio on Main Street, a toymaker, a coffee shop, an old library, and other attractive homes and buildings. There’s an old rail caboose at the foot of Main that you can peek into and maybe explain to kiddos that these used to be on the ends of trains! In a normal summer, there’s also a chamber music festival. The village sports a 19^th century inn of the sort where people lounge on the verandah, if you’re inclined to nestle in. Those with a taste for more action travel 8 miles down the road to Lime Rock Speedway.

The main attraction, though, is the Housatonic River. The Housatonic is one of the more varied rivers in New England. In some places it’s just a concrete trough with a few inches of water; in others it’s scenic, swimmable, and a kayak superhighway. I wouldn’t recommend paddling in Great Falls unless you are a competition-level kayaker. The aptly named village is where one finds an impressive waterfall on the Housatonic.

In the summertime, much of the water is diverted by an upstream dam but, as you can see, it’s still a lovely spot easily accessed by a very short stroll–several hundred yards–along the Appalachian Trail. Further downstream there is a whitewater slalom course for competitive kayakers, but only when water is released from the power dam. We weren’t there to see that and suspect that the dry summer has kept the flow down. We hope to go back in the spring, as apparently the winter runoff turns the river into a five-story torrent that fills the mostly dry gorge.  

I’m not sure I’d want to stay in Falls Village, but it’s a nice side trip. Plus, the minute you cross the border into Massachusetts, things get busier. There is a nice-looking café in the village called the Toymakers Cafe, though it was closed by the middle of the day, so I can’t comment on the roast. The menu looked good, though. The next time you find yourself in the Great Barrington/Sheffield area, check out Falls Village.

Rob Weir

This tranquil section of the Housatonic River is about 10 miles upstream in Sheffield, MA