It encompasses the historic village center of South Glastonbury, which was first settled in the 17th century.

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and enlarged in 2009[1] to include properties further along Main Street as far as Chestnut Hill Road.

The river meadows of South Glastonbury were used as farmland by the proprietors of Wethersfield, one of Connecticut's oldest colonial settlements, during the 17th century.

By late in that century there was enough permanent settlement that Glastonbury was incorporated as a separate town in 1693.

[2] The village center is a triangle made up of all or part of Main, High, and Water Streets, and includes 83 contributing resources, including the public library, located in a former Methodist Church built in 1828, a c. 1740 house at 120 High Street, and the c. 1878 Carpenter Gothic St. Augustine's Church.