It is a street common to the Portland neighborhoods Eliot, Boise, Humboldt, and Piedmont.

[3] In the early 20th century, property owners and politicians sought to restrict access to nonwhites in most residential areas in Portland.

In 1919 the Portland Realty Board declared that selling property in a white neighborhood to Negro or Chinese people was unethical, and by 1940, half of Portland's Black community lived in the North Williams Avenue area.

[6] A redevelopment plan in the late 1980s caused a gradual shift in demographics along North Williams Avenue and the surrounding area.

Moreover, the Portland Historic Resources Inventory of 1984 counted 26 sites of interest on North Williams Avenue.