Until the 18th century, Yeniköy was a majority Greek maritime trading town with a Turkish (primarily immigrants from the eastern Black Sea coast), Armenian and Jewish minority.

Besides the historic village, the nearby neighborhoods of Yalılar, Bağlar Mevkii, Kalender, as well as sections of Ferahevler are considered within the borders of Yeniköy.

Vallaury also designed the yalı of Ahmed Afif Pasha behind it, where Agatha Christie stayed as a guest in 1933 while writing Murder on the Orient Express.

The Greek Orthodox church of Dormition of the Mother of God (Panayia Kumariotisa Rum Ortodoks Kilisesi, Koybaşı Cad.

108) was built in 1837 at the request of Sultan Mahmud II′s personal physician Stefanos Karatheodori (Greek: Στέφανος Καραθεοδωρής).

The Egyptian Greek poet Constantine Cavafy lived here together with his parents in 1882–1885 as an adolescent; his bust is in the yard of the Panagia church.