The district was named for the inner northern Perth suburb of Leederville, which fell within its borders.
Leederville was largely created out of the abolished Balcatta by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1911, and its first member, elected at the 1911 state election, was the former member for Balcatta, Labor's Frederick Gill.
He was defeated in the 1914 election by 81 votes by another former Balcatta member, the Liberal candidate John Veryard.
Millington ran for and won the new seat of Mount Hawthorn, whilst the Labor member for Menzies, Alexander Panton, and the Nationalist (formerly National Labor) member for Mount Margaret, George Taylor, were in the unusual position of battling for the metropolitan seat of Leederville.
Following Panton's death on Christmas Day 1951, Labor candidate Ted Johnson won the seat.