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Just a few years ago, preservationists worried that the town's collection of modernist houses, one of Connecticut's historical treasures, was in danger of destruction.
The houses' very design - smaller, one-story structures built with natural materials that flow into the landscape - put them at risk of being torn down to make way for the larger McMansions that have become so popular.
But the death in 2005 of Philip Johnson, one of the most famous of the modernist architects, and the opening earlier this year of his world-famous Glass House in New Canaan for public tours, seems to be turning the tide in favor of the town's notable modernist homes, according to local history experts and preservationists.
"People are coming looking for these houses, so the tear-downs have slowed down," said Janet Lindstrom, executive director of the New Canaan Historical Society. "They seem to be much more respected. Many of them are in the process of being refurbished and it could be that maybe five years ago, they would have been torn down and lost to us forever."