Originally platted by 1872, the area remained undeveloped until David McLean Parry, a wealthy Indianapolis industrialist, acquired a tract on a ridge overlooking the White River between 1900 and 1907. The neighborhood takes its name from Parry's Golden Hill estate home. Scottish landscape architect George MacDougall designed its grounds. Further development began after Parry's death in 1915, when Parry's heirs hired MacDougall to plan an elegant residential subdivision. Platted as Golden Hill Estates, it was among the city's elite neighborhoods by the 1920s.