During the era of railroad expansion and prosperity from 1853 to 1872, a few wealthy families built "country estates" up in the hills of Lafayette. Movers and shakers of early Lafayette settled this new area of the young city. The flowering of Ninth Street Hill began and continued for 50 years.

During the Great Depression and after World War II, some Ninth Street homes were altered to "take in boarders". In the late 1950s and 1960s, the neighborhood properties continued to experience change. The movement of families to the suburbs, coupled with the natural changes as original families died, caused many old homes to become rentals with multiple apartments.

In the late 1970s, new families slowly began purchasing homes in the old Ninth Street Hill neighborhood. Many homes have been restored.

The neighborhood is Lafayette's first local residential historic district and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.