Hunterdon County, named after Governor Robert Hunter, was formed March 11, 1713, consisting of nearly all of the present Mercer, Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Warren counties. The new county was divided into several huge townships included Lebanon, in which what is now the town of Clinton began.

On April 5, 1865, the Town of Clinton became incorporated as a separate entity - "An Act to Incorporate the town of Clinton, in the township of Clinton, Franklin and Union, in the County of Hunterdon." The first town meeting was held at Weller's Hotel; John B. Weller and his brother had bought the brick hotel from Israel Smith in about 1845. The meeting was on the second Monday in April, 1865.

The Clinton Historic District, like many other districts in New Jersey, could be described as chronicling the growth of a crossroads hamlet on a major turnpike that grew up in the 1840s and continued into the post-Victorian era. From this general origin of villages, Clinton can now be distinguished from other villages by the fact that its particular location at a great source of water power with major limestone cliffs inviting to quarry operation, was always attractive to entrepreneurs - originally Englishmen, later Germans and Irish - which led to the development of a substantial town, flourishing as an agricultural and mill center and later a cultural center and visitor attraction.