Waddington flourished as an early Seaway Trail community because of access to the St. Lawrence River, and it was settled by early industrialists who came to harness the river's waterpower. Many buildings in the village center reflect the success of those early entrepreneurs, including St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the oldest church building north of the Mohawk River, built 1816-1818; the Town Hall, whose stonework was crafted by Isaac Johnson, a freed negro slave, built in 1884; the Hepburn Library, a fine example of Beaux Arts Classicism with Greek columns and Palladian windows, built in 1919; and Jefferson Bank, built in 1919 with Indiana limestone trim and original teller cages still in place. Other highlighted sites include houses, churches, residences, offices, stores, a hotel, a library, a bank, a Masonic building, and an early rectory associated with the village's nineteenth- and early twentieth-century development.