Many use locally quarried Medina sandstone or brick, a legacy of three destructive fires in the mid and late 19th century which destroyed earlier wood-frame buildings.

The district is an irregularly shaped area centered around the intersection of North Main (state highway NY 98) and East and West Bank streets.

In 1822 large-scale development began when Nehemiah Ingersoll bought a large tract of land south of the canal on the east side of what later became Main Street.

When the canal was finished the next year, Albion became a bustling port, shipping mainly the wheat and apples grown in the surrounding farms.

[2] In the late 1830s, a quarry operator near Medina, the next large settlement to the west along the canal, discovered an attractive reddish-brown sedimentary rock and began selling it as a building material.

Two local businessmen, Lorenzo Burrows and Williams Swan, built large, ornate, Greek Revival houses for themselves at 34 and 48 North Main respectively.

They employed brick and Medina sandstone in various combinations of late Victorian styles: Italianate, Eastlake and Romanesque Revival.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows hall at 10 North Main, the district's south end, was put up in 1907.

Albion also suffered when the New York State Thruway was opened to the south, near Batavia, displacing both canal and rail as a freight route.

The listing of the courthouse historic district to the south gave impetus to efforts to preserve and restore the commercial area as well.

The district was determined eligible for the National Register in 1986; that was changed when the north side of East Bank between Platt and Ingersoll, originally intended to be included, was found to have too many alterations and modern intrusions to retain its historic integrity.

It is charged with protecting and enhancing the landmarks within them and making the village more attractive to visitors in order to ensure growth and development.

Specific projects undertaken include beautification such as placing American flags on the street and litter cleanup in Canal Park, taking photographic inventory and mapping the buildings within the district, and organizing community events and education programs related to it.

It has been accredited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation,[4][5] which gave the village a three-year grant to restore facades in 2008.

Late in the year he asked four of the seven members to step down since they had not taken their oaths of office within the required 30 days, leaving the commission without a quorum and unable to take action.

[6] In the spring, AMSA organized the Olde Orleans Erie Canal Festival to promote the district as part of a corridor of historic and scenic attractions along Route 98, ranging from the nearby courthouse to the Cobblestone National Historic Landmark District and Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum north of town along the highway.

[7] A month later, Hadick resigned as mayor and Dean Theodorakos, one of the HPC members and a village trustee, was chosen by the board to replace him.

[8] Theodorakos moved later that year to have the village apply for Certified Local Government (CLG) status from the National Park Service in order to better protect the historic district.

Almost ten years earlier, public hearings required by law had been held, but the resulting documentation was never filed with the county clerk's office and could not be located in village archives.