Mainly residential in character, South Park is significant because of the variety of its architecture, which includes vernacular, cottage, and high style examples, and because of its association with John H. Patterson, founder of the National Cash Register Company (NCR).

[2] When John H. Patterson founded the National Cash Register Company in 1884,[3] the neighborhood around the factory complex, Slidertown, had a poor reputation.

[4] To encourage workers to live closer in a beautiful environment, Patterson employed corporate welfare and began to clean up the area.

He hired the Olmsted Brothers to design the landscape around the factory and recreate the neighborhood's cottage gardens as models for residents.

[10] The architecture of South Park includes examples of Second Empire, High Victorian Italianate, Queen Anne, Federal and Romanesque Revival in one- and two-story structures of brick and frame.