The Town of Strafford received its charter on August 12, 1761. By the 1790s the area surrounding the Common, known as Strafford Village, had become the town center, with a mill dam and mill, several homes, an inn, and a store. The historic district includes nearly thirty residences and other structures built near the Common before the 1850s. Its central landmark is the 1799 meeting house, and other significant buildings include many houses constructed between 1780 and 1830, the United Church built in 1832, the Brick Store in 1834, and the Morrill Homestead in 1851. Justin Smith Morrill, who served in Congress for nearly forty-four years, was born there in 1810.