As early as 1208, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword built Bertold's Mill [lv] in the present-day Ķengarags neighbourhood, serving as a fortification near Riga.
During the Swedish Livonia period, Johan Rodenburg [lv] designed a plan for the fortifications surrounding Riga's suburbs, with a street layout within this arc.
[1] After the war and Riga's incorporation into the Russian Empire, Belarusian rafters settled along the Daugava River beyond Rodenburg's Ditch.
In 1771, a redesign plan for Riga's suburbs was created, proposing a new line of fortifications (palisades) near what is now Matīsa Street [lv].
Wealthy Jewish merchants from Russia's Pale of Settlement and Russian factory workers from central provinces began settling in the newly developed suburbs.