Through a grant from the Connecticut State Library, the Town of Canton was able to scan historic aerial photos to be used for our GIS mapping display. New England Geosystems, who currently operates our online GIS data, collected the preserved aerials, scanned and digitized them into high resolution TIFF scans, and projected them onto our online GIS website for the public to access and view.

The Town of Canton’s collection of printed historic aerials captures an interesting perspective. Historic aerials provide significant insight to long-term development as well as general land use trends through decades of time. The aerials that the Town preserved with this grant are from two different aerial flights: 1959 and 1984. The flight from 1959 is particularly important as this is also the year that the Town adopted Zoning Regulations, so having a visual snapshot in time provides great benefit to understanding the conditions of the Town at that time.

To check out this new feature of GIS:
1. Log on to https://canton.mapxpress.net/

2. Type in an address and click GO

3. Click on ZOOM TO GIS

4. Click on BASE MAPS/AIR PHOTOS in upper right of screen

5. Choose the year you’d like to see

Example: 4 Market Street

1959 Aerial of 4 Market Street

1984 Aerial of 4 Market Street

2019 Aerial of 4 Market Street (most current)