The park that was laid out was named in honor of General David Wooster, a hero of the American Revolutionary War who at one time owned a warehouse near the southern end of the area.

It quickly developed as a fashionable residential area, with many fine Greek Revival houses, some of which were designed by local architect Henry Austin.

As the city industrialized further in the second half of the 19th century, the area's desirability declined, at it became a residential center populated mainly by Italian immigrants.

The local community rallied, and developed preservation plans in the late 1950s, assisted by architecture students from Yale University.

The latter house was built for James E. English, a prominent politician who served as a United States Senator and as Governor of Connecticut.