Selected contributing properties in the district are:
John M. Davies house, 393 Prospect Street, an 1868 Second French Empire Revival house designed by Henry Austin, the district's primary example of the Victorian estates from the earliest period of the district's settlement,[3]: 40 now known as Betts House
Ellsworth Foote House at 145 East Rock Road, and 152, 166, 180 East Rock Road, four Shingle Style houses[3]: 7
149 and 156 East Rock Road, two Queen Anne houses[3]: 7
Non-contributing properties include:
four Yale Divinity School dormitories at 352 Canner Street, from 1957, whose "economically designed modern blocks contrast with the neighborhood character"[3]: 6
In 2002, application was made for a building that was located at 285 Prospect Street to be moved to 380 Edwards Street, while retaining its contributing building status. It is a building designed by R. Clipston Sturgis. It was approved.[4]
The historic district includes most of New Haven's Prospect Hill neighborhood. The district borders are drawn irregularly to exclude modern construction, and also to exclude properties fronting Whitney Avenue,[3] which are included in the Whitney Avenue Historic District. It excludes the entire area of the Hillhouse Avenue Historic District, an area that was originally residential, and now is mostly Yale University-owned, and which included within the official neighborhood planning maps for Prospect Hill. The historic district also excludes the Edgerton historic district, the New Haven portion of which has been included in the official neighborhood planning maps for Prospect Hill.
Among other exclusions, the district excludes Yale University's relatively modern buildings on Science Hill. It excludes several Yale graduate student housing facilities (the Whitehall Apartment Complex, the Mansfield Apartments, and the Esplanade Apartments), while at 352 Canner Street, the district includes four dormitory buildings of the Yale Divinity School.
The district extends to the south to include historic houses that are now Yale offices along the west side of Prospect Street south of Hillside Place.[5]
