In the 1890's, the Rocky Hill Quarry, located on what is now called Rocky Ridge Park, produced trap rock which was used primarily for road building. Much of the heavy labor was performed by Irish immigrants. In 1876, the first St. Lawrence O'Toole Church was constructed to meet community needs. At the turn of the 20th century, trolley lines along Zion Street and New Britain Avenue opened up the neighborhood for residential development.

As the area became built up, blasting from the quarry became an issue with residents as well as with Trinity College. George Fairfield, park commissioner and civic leader, was very vocal, having had his home on Fairfield Avenue damaged by the concussions of blasting. In the early 1900s, the quarry was turned over to the City to be turned into a park. Today, there are ball fields and a playground to serve the neighborhood.

In 1920 a housing boom occurred on land between Zion Street and Hillside Avenue to accommodate workers in local factories. Ninety homes were built in a matter of seven months, some of which were of the Elizabethan style of architecture, some of which can still be seen.

In the 1940s, the city's fourth public housing project was built. Originally designed as low-income house, it was used to house for defense workers and their families as the country prepared for World War II. The project was named Charter Oak Terrace through a contest, the winner of which was awarded $15. The 1000-unit project was bounded by Flatbush Avenue, Newfield Street, Chandler Street and the south branch of the Park River. When the units were no longer needed to house defense workers, they became low-rent housing. The following decades saw the decline of the community as it became plagued with crime and drugs. It was demolished in the mid-1990s and in its place, a shopping center and new housing was built. A plaque commemorating the thousands who lived at Charter Oak Terrace stands there today.

Along a segment of Brookfield Street, the Park River Greenway trail was created in 2008 as a recreational and environmental amenity that would ultimately hook into the East Coast Greenway, a planned pedestrian/bicycle corridor, from Maine to Florida. For now, the area is a stopover point for migrating birds as well as home to wildlife, including turkeys and foxes.

Behind the Rocks is also home to Breakthrough Magnet School, a completely redesigned A. I. Prince Tech, the Job Corps Academy and the new Hartford Housing Authority headquarters. A stop on the New Britain-to-Hartford busway, which will run along the railroad tracks at the western boundary of the neighborhood, is under construction just over the West Hartford town line on Flatbush Avenue. It will undoubtedly have a favorable impact on the neighborhood's economic development.

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