Sandwiched between Connecticut Route 8 and the tracks of the former Naugatuck Railroad line, now the Waterbury Branch, it developed in the mid-19th century as a successful industrial center dominated by the production of brass goods.

Its industrial and commercial history began in the late 18th century, when John Wooster and Bradford Steele established first a blacksmithy, and then fulling and carding mills at the falls of the Naugatuck River.

[2] The historic district is a roughly rectangular area, with a truncated northwest corner, 21 acres (8.5 ha) in size.

It is set in a bend of the Naugatuck River, with CT 8 paralleling the bank west of the district, and the railroad cutting a straight north–south line to its east.

The oldest building in the district is believed to be the Trestle Tavern, a 2+1⁄2-story frame structure at 26-28 Main Street built about 1850.