John Canning & Co.

John Canning & Co. has worked out of Cheshire, Connecticut since 1976, when Scottish-trained decorator John Canning set up shop after moving his family to the state. The firm is a specialty restoration contractor for decorative finishes, covering historic paint analysis, plaster and wood restoration, mural and artwork conservation, exterior gilding, and consulting during preconstruction. Most of the work is institutional and civic: churches, theaters, university buildings, museums, libraries and state capitols. Named jobs include the Boston Public Library, Radio City Music Hall, Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, the U.S. Capitol, and the West Virginia State Capitol rotunda. The company won a 2025 Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Construction Award for restoring the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Hanover. Staff sits in the 51 to 200 range.

Two numbers matter to an owner putting this scope out to bid: the firm carries bonding capacity of up to $4 million on a single contract and up to $10.5 million aggregate, and it insures the work across commercial general liability, contractual liability, pollution and professional liability, workers’ compensation, employers’ liability and automobile liability.

The technical standard is set out in conservation rather than decorating terms. The principals are professional associates of the American Institute for Conservation, and the approach is do-no-harm: reversible treatments, with research, existing conditions, actions taken and materials used all documented. Field staff hold OSHA 10 or OSHA 30, plus CPR, lift, and RRP and lead certification, and a site-specific safety plan is written before work starts.

Keeping a building in use during the work is a stated capability rather than an accident. The firm engineers complex scaffold systems for that purpose – its Luzerne County Courthouse project covered marble, metal, wood, gilding, plaster, paint and artwork, including 125 murals over six months, and was completed without closing an active courthouse. It also offers emergency relief and disaster assessment of historic finishes, murals and decorative elements after fire or water damage.

The in-house trades are broad for a specialty contractor: traditionally trained decorative painters, ornamental plasterers, masons, carpenters, fine art conservators and architectural material conservators. Work is organised under branded divisions including Canning Decorative Building Arts and Canning Liturgical Arts.

Recent awards point at the range. A 2025 Doris Duke Historic Preservation Award recognised conservation of the Cignaroli mural at Salve Regina University, and in 2026 Canning Decorative Building Arts took the Addison Mizner Award from the ICAA Florida Chapter for the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables. Grand Central Terminal and Washington’s Union Station sit alongside the better-known credits, and the company is running a fiftieth-anniversary programme spotlighting fifty sets of projects across the year.