The Route 146 Historic District encompasses a historic streetscape in Branford and Guilford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. Extending along

Connecticut Route 146 Route 146 is a state road that serves as a scenic alternative to US 1 between Branford and Guilford in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Route 146 is long, with in Branford and in Guilford. Route description Route 146 begins in Branford as Ma ...

between Flat Rock Road in Branford and the West River bridge in Guilford, it includes two centuries of rural residential architecture, and a well-preserved pre-World War II street layout created as a "state assistance road" in the 1920s. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1990.

Description and history

What is now Connecticut Route 146 in Branford and Guilford was originally laid out in the early 18th century, and the surrounding area developed into the early 19th century as a scattered collection of farmsteads. The railroad which now roughly parallels its route along this stretch, crossing it twice, was opened in 1852, but development remained slow and predominantly agricultural. By 1880, the farms in the area had been joined by a row of houses built for workers at a nearby stone quarry. The first significant changes to the road alignment took place in the 1890s, when the railroad line was elevated and widened to two tracks, with grade crossings replaced by stone overpasses. In the early 20th century, the road was one of the few in the two towns to be designated a "state assistance road", which made available state funding for improvements. In the 1920s and 1930s, the roadway was widened, paved, and its curves and dips were smoothed out. With The district is about in size, and includes the entire road right-of-way for Route 146 between the West River in Guilford and Flat Rock Road in Branford. It abuts the

Guilford Historic Town Center Guilford Historic Town Center is a large historic district encompassing the entire town center of Guilford, Connecticut, in the United States. It is centered on the town green, laid out in 1639, and extends north to Interstate 95, south to Lo ...

to the east and the Stony Creek–Thimble Islands Historic District to the west. The built architecture of the district is entirely residential, representing a cross-section of rural styles covering 200 years from the early 18th to early 20th centuries. Several of the houses are early farmsteads of the locally prominent Leete family, whose name is given to the roadway in Guilford (Leete's Island Road). Two houses, the John Rogers House (c. 1750) and the Pelatiah Leete House (1710), are individually listed on the National Register.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places National Register of Historic Places in New Haven County, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Branford, Connecticut Guilford, Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References