At first a rural agricultural market town, it developed in the second half of the 19th century as a small industrial center, producing finished wood products.

Its downtown occupies an area of one block on both sides of Main Street, and features a diversity of architectural styles.

Its town center provided services to farmers in outlying areas, including a market for their goods and sawmills and gristmills for processing their lumber and grain.

[2] Downtown Bristol consists of one long block of Main Street (Vermont Route 116), which runs east-west north of the New Haven River.

East of this junction, both sides of Main Street are lined with more than a dozen late 19th and early 20th century commercial buildings.