The district includes properties on Main Street, Wood and Woodbury Lanes, Newtown, Concord, and Nagog Hill Roads, and has been the town's civic heart since its establishment in the 1730s.

[1] The area that is now Acton was granted to English colonial settlers in 1643, but was not settled until 1680 as part of Concord.

The town's early civic buildings and common area were located near its geographic center, which for much of the colonial period remained a small agricultural settlement.

[2] The historic district extends along Main Street (Massachusetts Route 27) from the triangular common in the west to Nagog Hill in the east, and includes a few buildings on adjacent roadways.

It was here that the town's militia company mustered for the Battles of Lexington and Concord that sparked the conflict.