[3] The area surrounding Cass Park was originally laid out as part of a French ribbon farm extending from the Detroit River.

[2] In 1863, the Detroit City Railway Company began streetcar service Along Woodward Avenue, only a few blocks away from Cass Park.

By the 1880s, some of Detroit's most prominent citizens lived along the park, including James Vernor, E. W. Voigt, and John H. Avery.

Also by 1920, the city's Freemasonry had purchased a plot of land on what is now Temple Avenue to construct a new building, replacing the lodge on Lafayette which the organizations had outgrown.

During World War II the city's exploding population caused apartment owners in the area to subdivide their units to house the influx of workers.

After the war, the Cass Park area declined economically, with the apartment buildings being further divided into substandard units.

In 1955, the Episcopal Diocese of Detroit constructed the Mariners Inn at 445 Ledyard as a shelter and treatment center for alcoholic sailors.

A statue of Robert Burns, sculpted by George Anderson Lawson in 1921, is located at the north side of the park, facing the Masonic Temple.

Two of the buildings in the district (the S.S. Kresge Company Headquarters and the Detroit Masonic Temple) are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.