[1] When the New Haven Colony was established in the 17th century, the Westville area was mainly agricultural, with Whalley Avenue providing the principal means of access from homes in the town center to those lands.
Its village beginnings date roughly to 1797, when a bridge was built over the West River, turning Whalley Avenue into a more important transportation link.
Some early settlers had harnessed the power of the local waterways for saw and gristmills, and there were gunpowder mills in the area that were targeted by British raids in the American Revolutionary War.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, larger mills devoted to textile and paper production were established.
This led to further industrialization later in the 19th century, and the village gained further significance when a horse trolley line was extended to it in 1861.