[5] The toponymy, or origin of the name, describes the geographic area the barrio occupies in southern Ponce and facing the Caribbean Sea.

[21] Subsequently, during the 17th and 18th centuries, significant contraband took place on these shores as well as attempts to attack and ransack the Playa settlement.

A lookout post was set up in El Vigia to warn the city of the need of help in the Playa harbor, a port settlement at the time.

By the 1830s, la Playa had one of the best roads in Puerto Rico, connecting the shore settlement to the city proper, and it was the center of Ponce's commercial activity.

[23] This moved Puerto Rico governor Conde de Marisol to create a new voluntary fire-fighting organization island-wide.

[citation needed] In 1887 the Spanish government built a lighthouse at Caja de Muertos Light on an island by the same name just off the coast of barrio Playa.

By 1913, Playa was "a dynamic neighborhood with a self-sustained urban development with a population of 5,169 distributed through a residential area dominated by wooden houses, sugar cane farms, churches, schools, hospitals, a cemetery and local indiustries that promoted the formation of a strong artisan and industrial workers class.

[citation needed] Playa is home to a mix of Ponce and Puerto Rico landmarks: Puerto Rico Iron Works foundry, Plaza del Caribe mall, Club Náutico de Ponce yacht club, La Guancha boardwalk, and Caja de Muertos natural reserve are all located in Barrio Playa.