Extending along Connecticut Route 146 between Flat Rock Road in Branford and the West River bridge in Guilford, it includes two centuries of rural residential architecture, and a well-preserved pre-World War II street layout created as a "state assistance road" in the 1920s.

[1] What is now Connecticut Route 146 in Branford and Guilford was originally laid out in the early 18th century, and the surrounding area developed into the early 19th century as a scattered collection of farmsteads.

The railroad which now roughly parallels its route along this stretch, crossing it twice, was opened in 1852, but development remained slow and predominantly agricultural.

By 1880, the farms in the area had been joined by a row of houses built for workers at a nearby stone quarry.

The first significant changes to the road alignment took place in the 1890s, when the railroad line was elevated and widened to two tracks, with grade crossings replaced by stone overpasses.