Its written form (Chinese: 麻里折口; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Bâ-lí-chek-kháu) was abbreviated (錫口; Sek-kháu)[1] in 1815 during Qing rule.

In 1920, the area's settlements were established as Matsuyama Village (Japanese: 松山庄), Shichisei District, Taihoku Prefecture.

At the outset of one-party rule by the Kuomintang (1945-1990), the Mandarin Chinese reading of the kanji characters 松山 (i.e. Sung-shan) was adopted as the name of the district, which in 1946 officially comprised 26 municipal villages (里).

The bodies of many residents and political victims from Taiwan's martial law period are buried in hillside cemeteries that now overlook the Taipei 101 shopping district.

The boundary of this smaller Songshan District was altered in May 1994 when the course of Keelung River was moved slightly to the south.