With grand-scale economic expansion came massive immigration to east Houston. By 1910, Houston saw a wave of Asian immigrants arriving from the port. These early immigrants settled in parts of East Downtown and the East End. The 1920s made Houston a veritable melting pot of new residents. Caused by a mix of social turmoil in Mexico, coupled with the labor-hungry economy, Houston accepted thousands of Hispanic immigrants. This influx of immigration began to shape much of east Houston with the construction of many new neighborhoods. Magnolia Park, Idylwood, and Eastwood all owed their existence to the settling of these new residents, and would eventually become what is now known as the East End.

The East End provided a wide array of industrialized work. Ship channel maintenance and expansion, cement manufacturing, cotton compresses and textile plants flourished. The rise in industrial work promoted the growth of a bustling business district, with drugstores, bakeries, restaurants and various shopping centers. People would continue to immigrate to the East End until the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the surge in foreign immigration experienced during the last 30 years would stagnate.

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