In the 1880s, Arch Hill was part of an 80-acre farm which stretched from what is now Great North Road, down the gulley where the Northwestern Motorway cuts through, and up the other side to the Morningside area.

Most of the houses on the Arch Hill area date from around the turn of the 20th century and many are small workers' cottages or wooden villas; sections are often tiny and without off-street parking.

As Arch Hill faces southeast (away from the sun) it is and always was a less desirable location than either neighbouring Grey Lynn or Kingsland.

Before the Northwestern Motorway was cut through Arch Hill Gully at the bottom of the suburb in 1979, many of the streets running down from Great North Road linked up with those in Kingsland.

The Arch Hill Roads Board was formed after the Provincial abolition of the 1870s and was an independent municipality until it was incorporated into the City of Auckland in the 1910s following a referendum.