[2] In the years following the Civil War, Knoxville experienced an economic boom that brought about a rapid increase in the city's population.

[2] Several other historic districts lie in the vicinity, namely Mechanicsville to the southwest, Fourth and Gill to the south, Park City to the east, and North Hills to the northeast.

[4] In the years after the Civil War, however, Knoxville's railroad access and an influx of northern capital helped make Knoxville a major warehousing and textile manufacturing center, bringing about an exponential increase in population.

[2] By 1886, several houses and several roads (including Armstrong and "Kennion") had been built in what is now Old North Knoxville, and several factories had been built nearby along Second Creek, namely the Brookside Cotton Mill, the Fantz (Fanz) Sausage Factory, and two marble works.

The neighborhood consisted primarily of upper middle and professional class residents, including business managers, doctors, lawyers, and professors.

One section of Glenwood Avenue was known as "Doctors' Hill," since nearly every home on the block was occupied by a physician.

Business leaders living in the neighborhood included Brookside Cotton Mill manager William Lang, H. T. Hackney Company president (and later mayor of Knoxville) Benjamin Morton, and several Southern Railway officials.

[2] North Knoxville continued to grow until the 1940s, by which time most of the original residents had died or moved away.