The sale was prompted by increased Kirkwood development following installation of one of Atlanta's first trolley lines in the early 1870s. That line's right of way bordered soon to be Gilliam Park and explains the curved shape of the park's border. In the late 1910s consolidation of the many electric trolley companies in Atlanta led to the founding of today's Georgia Power Company. The Atlanta Suburban Land Company held the park parcel until approximately 1922, when they collapsed during a land fraud scandal.