The name derives from the Manor of Morrisania, the 2,000 acres (810 ha) estate of the powerful and aristocratic Morris family, who at one time owned most of the Bronx as well as much of New Jersey.

In 1790, Lewis Morris, owner of the estate and signer of the Declaration of Independence, proposed the land as the site of the federal capital.

The area was sparsely populated until 1840, when Gouverneur Morris Jr., son of the famous congressional delegate and nephew of Lewis, allowed a railroad to be built across the property.

In 1855, additional settlements along the rail line became the Town of Morrisania (with its own police force[4]), with its political center in the original 1840 village (which was eventually incorporated in 1864[5]).

By the time the New York City Subway was extended to the area in 1904, a large influx of European immigrants had given the neighborhood an urban character, with a high concentration of tenement buildings replacing houses as the dominant form of dwelling.

During this time period, a wave of arson destroyed or damaged many of the residential, commercial, and industrial structures in the area.

[13] Morrisania is home to a significant number of inmates currently held in New York state prison and jail facilities.

After a wave of arson ravaged the low-income communities of New York City throughout the 1970s, most of the residential structures in Morrisania were left seriously damaged or destroyed.

The city began to rehabilitate many formally abandoned tenement-style apartment buildings and designate them low-income housing beginning in the late 1970s.

Also many subsidized attached multi-unit townhouses and newly constructed apartment buildings have been or are being built on vacant lots across the neighborhood.

[19] In 2018, an estimated 31% of Morrisania and Crotona Park East residents lived in poverty, compared to 25% in all of the Bronx and 20% in all of New York City.

Most of the original housing stock which consisted of older multi-unit homes and tenements was structurally damaged by arson and eventually razed by the city.

The two square blocks between Boston Road, Forest Avenue, and East 166th Street have Morris High School and adjacent brownstones.

The district retains a well-preserved architectural character dating back to early urban development in the Bronx consisting of Romanesque Revival forms and neo-Renaissance motifs.

[16]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Morrisania and Crotona Park East is 0.0078 milligrams per cubic metre (7.8×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.

[16]: 13  In Morrisania and Crotona Park East, 36% of residents are obese, 22% are diabetic, and 32% have high blood pressure—compared to the citywide averages of 24%, 11%, and 28% respectively.

[16]: 6  The percentage of Morrisania and Crotona Park East students excelling in math rose from 19% in 2000 to 41% in 2011, and reading achievement increased from 28% to 32% during the same time period.

[33] Morrisania and Crotona Park East's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is more than the rest of New York City.

[17]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [16]: 6  Additionally, 63% of high school students in Morrisania and Crotona Park East graduate on time, lower than the citywide average of 75%.