Although not officially a city, it is treated like one by many of its residents, and experiences relatively low crime rates compared to the rest of Topeka.
William Curtis (grandfather of Charles Curtis, who was born in North Topeka and went on to become Vice President of the United States under Hoover) and Louis Laurent laid out a town in 1865 that they called Eugene (possibly after a place in Indiana).
The advent of the railroad assured that this area would for much of the 19th century be the industrial heart of the Kansas capital (excluding the mammoth AT&SF shops across the river).
At the time more evenly matched in population and economy, north and south played a tug-of-war for industry and commerce during the remainder of the 1800s.
However, many fine buildings dating from that period remain, and, when restored, will make North Topeka a showplace of Victorian-era commercial and residential architecture.