If walls could only talk, oh, the stories they would tell. Hidden well inside the walls in the Canton home of Jim Roache, there was quite a bit of history. It was that discovery which would also stir a quest for knowledge in Roache, leading him to uncover an even more interesting history about the town he called home. Roache, a curator at the Canton Historical Society, was born in 1952. "I was born in Canton," said Roache. "My father was born in Canton. His father was born in Canton. He had a big family in town." Roache said he never really traced his family roots but believed his ancestors …

The next time you stop under a streetlight at night on some road in Massachusetts, take a moment to ponder this: what would life be like without them? Streetlights or lampposts are so ubiquitous nowadays that we fail to even fathom a time when they did not light our way along a dark passageway or road. But this begs a larger question that Jim Roache, a curator at the Canton Historical Society, first asked himself before he started to delve into an extensive research project on the history of streetlights in the town. Today, Roache said, "Every car we drive has lights on it today. But do we …

Opening a drawer at the Canton Historical Society and you're likely to learn something new and fascinating. That was how the society's president Wallace Gibbs explained it one Sunday to a group of several school children who gathered before him, wide-eyed, as he carefully placed what looked to be a group of large rusty nails of various sizes on a display case. The rusty-looking nails turned out to be copper spikes and fastenings forged at Paul Revere's foundry in the 1800s. Further, they were recovered from the USS New Hampshire (later, known as the USS Granite State) shipwreck, off Graves …

There's a mission in progress right here in Canton to save one of the oldest homes still standing in the United States. The David Tilden House located at 93 Pleasant Street. The back of the home was built in the early 18th century, around 1709. In 1725, its owner and namesake David Tilden constructed the main portion of the home. Tilden bought the home and nearly 34 acres of land on which it was built directly from Native Americans of the Ponkapoag nation. Theophilus Lyon, a grandson of David Tilden and a Revolutionary War soldier who witnessed the birth of America, inherited the property. "…

Patricia Johnson may have a high-powered career during the day writing code for financial managers and traders at Fidelity, but in her free time, she's documenting historical homes in Canton. "It's my passion," Johnson, who is also a curator at the Canton Historical Society, said. These days, Johnson spends most weekends poring over the pages of the Canton Journal. This past rainy Sunday, it's a date from the 1932 edition. Johnson explained that searching through old newspapers is the only way she'll find the stories behind dozens of homes she is reaching for a third volume in what she …

In Canton, near the Milton border on Route 138 at the foot of the Great Blue Hills, there once stood a tavern that told the story of America's beginnings. Doty's Tavern played a vital role in the drafting of the Suffolk Resolves—the precursor of the Declaration of Independence. Historians describe the old homestead as a place were America's early revolutionaries met on the morning of August 16, 1774—out of sight of the British—to hash out their plans to free the country from the British government. General Joseph Warren drafted the Resolves and the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia …

Canton, Massachusetts and Guangzhou, China may be more than 12,000 miles apart but they have at least one thing in common. The origin of our historical town name is derived right from the ancient city, which is also known as Canton. "It was somewhat of a fluke," Wallace Gibbs, the president of the Canton Historical Society, said. "[Canton] should have been Ponkapoag, Gridley or Crane." The first name Gibbs described is the Native American name for the area which was given by members of the Massachusetts tribe to early settlers. According to Canton Comes of Age, an authoritative written …

Like many people, I have passed through the Canton Viaduct several times, admiring a gorgeous vista of its multiple stone arches from my rear-view without ever really knowing its full history.  Shame on me. That is until I decided to stop, park my car and take it all in. And I'm so glad I did. As I researched more about this marvelous bridge, I know why Wallace Gibbs, the president of the Canton Historical Society, calls it "fascinating." At 615 feet long, 70 feet high and 22 feet wide, it towers over the Canton River like an old city wall. The Canton Viaduct is unarguably Canton's most …

American Revolutionary hero Paul Revere is probably best known for his "Midnight Ride," in April 1775, during which he rode through several towns in Middlesex county-- just northwest of Boston--on horseback, warning American patriots, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Now what Revere actually said during that fateful ride before the battles of Lexington and Concord has been subject to debate. But one thing about Revere that is indisputable:  Canton is full of Revere history. "Revere was very fond of Canton and very fond of the people here," one local historian, George T. …