[1] Washington Street in North Attleborough is a historic road which began as a Native American path and later was transformed into the major route between Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island.

A variety of high quality residential houses, dating from the 18th to the mid-20th century, line this section of road.

The colonial period is represented by several houses, the oldest of which is possibly the Edward Richards Homestead at 169 South Washington, which has at is core a c. 1762 structure.

A second house, built by the locally prominent Draper family and now located at 327 South Washington, may date to 1750.

[2] Most of the district's houses date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when North Attleborough was at its economic height as a jewelry manufacturing center.