[3] The neighborhood was originally developed by Monroe M. Shipe in 1891 as a "White Only" streetcar suburb with a large artificial lake, but it has since become one of the most densely populated areas in the city's urban core.

Located approximately twenty blocks from Austin's original town site, the area now known as Hyde Park was largely rural in character for much of the 19th century.

[7] Established in 1891 by the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Land and Town Company, Hyde Park was marketed under the direction of Monroe Martin Shipe as a majority-white, affluent suburb featuring large, majestic residences, separate from the racially integrated neighborhoods of the city.

[8] Ads touted Hyde Park as "free from nuisances and an objectionable class of people, proper restrictions being taken to guard against undesirable occupants.

Noted sculptor Elisabet Ney was among the first to buy property in the area, which was heavily promoted as confirmation that Hyde Park was attractive to Austin's most talented and prestigious citizens.

No longer was it promoted as an affluent residential area; instead, the suburb was described as an ideal place for the "working man or woman" to invest his or her earnings by purchasing a lot and building a residence.

While steady construction of houses characterized the area through the early 1900s, Hyde Park's greatest building boom occurred between 1924 and 1935.

[7] Analysis of styles and dates of construction of domestic structures elucidates historic growth patterns within Hyde Park.

Later, as promotional emphasis shifted to a different socioeconomic group, more modest dwellings were constructed in areas somewhat removed from the streetcar line.