Extending roughly along Water and Church Streets between the Naugatuck River and Prospect Street, the district includes factory and commercial buildings, as well as the former Torrington Fire Department Headquarters and the civic Knights of Pythias building.

[1] The Naugatuck River, where it passes through what is now downtown Torrington, was long recognized as a potential source of industrial power, and was first dammed for a sawmill in 1751.

Growth was spurred by the arrival of the railroad, and in 1857 Charles Hotchkiss established a lumber parts mill, which eventually became a major manufacturer of window sashes and blinds.

The present streetscape is largely the product of that period, altered in part by the loss of some of the industrial buildings to fire and flood.

Its southern boundary is the Naugatuck River, extend from the railroad bridge west and northerly to Church Street.