Grant Park was established in 1882 when Lemuel P. Grant, a successful engineer and businessman, gave the city of Atlanta 100 acres in the newly-developed "suburb" where he lived. In 1890, the city acquired another 44 acres for the park and appointed its first park commissioner, Sidney Root. In 1903, the Olmsted Brothers (sons of Frederick Law Olmstead) were hired to create a plan for the park. The original park included a lake named Lake Abana to handle storm-water runoff.

A failed circus gave birth to the eventual Zoo Atlanta when local lumber merchant George Gress purchased animals from the circus and donated them to the city in 1889. The city decided Grant Park was the best location for the zoo and carved space out for the attraction. Later zoo expansions and parking requirements caused the removal of a portion of the lake. In 1892, the circular painting of the Battle of Atlanta was exhibited in the park. The cyclorama would eventually gain its own dedicated building in the park in 1921.

After years of neglect and abuse, in 1996 the City of Atlanta Parks Bureau commissioned a new master plan for the park. The consultants working on the plan met with a citizen advisory group that would eventually become the Grant Park Conservancy. The Conservancy works to raise funds to enhance and protect the park for the enjoyment of all its visitors.

Grant Park is also the in-town neighborhood surrounding Grant Park, and is Atlanta's largest historic neighborhood. It includes the 88 acres in which comprises Oakland Cemetery (established 1850), where Margaret Mitchell, Bobby Jones, 25 former mayors of Atlanta, six former governors of Georgia, and many Civil War dead are buried. It also includes the Atlanta Stockade, Fort Walker, and the Grant Mansion for which the area was named. The Grant Park Neighborhood Association represents local residents.

The Grant Park Historic District encompasses one of Atlanta's oldest neighborhoods. The district includes Grant Park, a 131-acre green space and recreational area, and the residential neighborhoods surrounding it. The majority of the buildings are residential but the district also includes school buildings, churches, neighborhood commercial clusters and recreational buildings. Rambling Victorian era mansions and small cottages, early 20th-century bungalows and many brick paved sidewalks characterize the Grant Park neighborhood. A majority of the buildings were built from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Large two-story mansions face the park, more modest two-story, modified Queen Anne, frame dwellings were constructed on surrounding streets, while one-story Victorian era cottages and Craftsman bungalows predominate in the streets to the east of the park. Grant Park's distinctive landscape includes rolling hills and scenic vistas. The neighborhood's grid street pattern and narrow rectangular lots which developed during the 1890s and early 1900s are representative of Atlanta residential plans of this era. The streets are lined with mature trees and there is an extensive sidewalk system, portions of which retain the original brick.