Gospel Hill was originally settled by free Black families in the antebellum era. During the 1970s and 1980s, the University of Virginia acquired homes and businesses in Gospel Hill and constructed Jordan (now renamed Pinn) Hall, McLeod Hall (site of the School of Nursing), the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, parking garages, and a new hospital building.

Gospel Hill, like Vinegar Hill, has become a site of historical memory for the African American community. Even today, the displacement of residents and university-wide expansion taking over land once owned by African Americans have left distrust among the Charlottesville African American community.

Brian Cameron and Andrew Kahrl, "UVA and the History of Race: Property and Power," read:
https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-and-history-race-property-and-power