The village comprising the Catlett Historic District is located nine miles southeast of Warrenton in Fauquier County. Catlett grew up around the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which was laid through the area in 1852. Catlett was a busy mail, telegraph, and transportation center, which also witnessed significant Civil War action due in part to its strategic position along the railroad. As a rail stop located at a prominent crossroads, in this case the Cedar Run bridge—also a focus of Civil War activity—Catlett consistently attracted businesses that helped to sustain it. Examples include a 1920 creamery building (that housed a garage at the time of the district’s listing), evidence of the once-thriving dairy farming in this area of the county. Though the train station that represented so much of Catlett’s history is no longer standing, the village retains a significant concentration of late-19th- through mid-20th-century buildings, illustrating its evolution.