Initial settlement, by 35 English settlers who relocated from Saybrook Fort under the leadership of Major John Mason and bought land from Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans, was centered on the Norwichtown Green.

North of the town's first schoolhouse is the Colonial Cemetery where four Connecticut governors are buried.

These are the saltbox Leffingwell Inn, the Joseph Carpenter Silversmith Shop, built c. 1772-1774; the Dr. Daniel Lathrop School, one of Connecticut's oldest remaining brick schoolhouses, which dates to 1782; the Bradford-Huntington House at 16 Huntington Lane; and the Gen. Jedidiah Huntington House at 23 E. Town Street.

[5] Norwichtown was the old center of Norwich, when the town was settled primarily as a farming community in the late 17th century.

By the early 18th century, the focus of Norwich became the harbor facilities in the adjacent Chelsea neighborhood east and south of the town center, and eventually the 'center' of Norwich became the small urban center at Chelsea, which was also ringed with industrial mills.

As Chelsea Parade became a more populated residential district, the residents wanted a church closer than those in Norwichtown.

One interesting House located at 189 Broadway is the De Witt House-Lydia Huntley Sigourney School.

Lydia Huntley conducted the school with her friend Nancy Maria Hyde until she was forced to close the school once Hyde became ill.[7] Continuing down Washington Street toward Norwich town is the most famous of historic homes in Norwich, the Leffingwell Inn.

The Tavern Hall, to the right of the entrance is the original part of the house and exhibits one of the few remaining, completely paneled rooms from the century.

[9] The House also includes fine works from Norwich silversmiths and clock makers of the 1700s.

The house still has the original fluted pilasters over the doorways and six-paneled raised double front door.

The National Register application was promoted by the local historic commission, in connection to its opposition to the demolition of a building in the district area.

The local commission sought the listing "for the prestige and status that is sometimes found in the recognition by not only a State agency but the Federal government.

"[5]: 2  The district consists of two parts: one includes the Green and stretches down to the Leffingwell museum at Washington and Town Streets.

Two "outstanding" buildings in the district, both located on the Norwichtown Green, are the Dr. Daniel Lathrop School and the Joseph Carpenter Silversmith Shop.