The district includes a particularly fine collection of late 19th and early 20th century residential architecture.

The oldest building in the district is the 1809 Delancey Allen House at Compo Road South and Bridge Street.

The Allen family, who owned land on the eastern bank of the river opposite the industrial village of Saugatuck, donated land for a bridgehead, and the first bridge was built on the site of a ferry crossing in 1869.

The Allens also donated land for the construction of Bridge Street, provided the town built a fences or stone walls (some of which survive in the landscape) to separate the road from their remaining landholdings.

Members of the Allen family then began selling off parcels for residential development.