According to the district's 1987 nomination document:
The district is historically significant for two reasons. First its core encompasses the extensive surviving portions of the industrial complex developed by the former Winchester Repeating Arms Company, one of the nation's foremost late 19th- and early 20th-century armament manufacturers. Second, the district as a whole forms New Haven's most nearly intact and cohesive surviving example of the inherent relationship between the growth of modern industry and the emergence of large working-class residential neighborhoods, a relationship typically associated with the development of many of the nation's northeastern urban communities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The district is architecturally significant for three reasons. First, its core embraces numerous examples of period industrial structures. Second, the majority of these structures were built for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company according to designs provided by Leoni W. Robinson, one of New Haven's premier late 19/early 20th-century architects. Finally, the district's predominantly residential perimeter areas encompass a host of relatively intact single- and multi-family workers' houses as well as several significant examples of commercial, religious, and municipal buildings dating from this same era. As a group, these perimeter-area buildings represent a variety of important and popular vernacular architectural styles of the era, including late Greek Revival, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival.
Residential development in the district included development of tenement buildings for one, two or three families. Examples are as depicted in accompanying photo 2, photo 4, photo 13, photo 16 and photo 20. Two speculators who were very successful with such residential development were Joseph Sheldon and John W. Bishop: "these men were the moving force behind the 19th-century development of virtually all of the properties which currently line both sides of Admiral and most of Henry Streets, as well as the construction of most of the houses along the southwestern side of Munson Street directly opposite the Winchester complex. Their work is depicted in accompanying photo 22, photo 12 and accompanying photo 9.
Industrial development
The Winchester firm had started operations on Union Street in the Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, and moved to Bridgeport in 1866. It relocated from Bridgeport to New Haven in 1870, to the current location in the district. The original buildings which it built no longer exist. The firm grew to more than 600 employees by 1887 and "well in excess of 1,000" by the early 1900s.
Streets
Streets in the district include:
Mansfield Street
Sheffield Street
Division Street
Winchester Avenue
Munson Street
Thompson Street
Ivy Street
Admiral Street
Dixwell Avenue
Shelton Avenue
Newhall Street
Henry Street
Relationship to neighborhoods
The district is located in the Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods defined by the city of New Haven, Connecticut. The 1987 NRHP nomination document reads: the "255-acre district includes most of the southern and northern portions of the city's Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods, respectively."
