In the Joseon era, Myeongdong (明洞, Myeong-dong) was a residential area where people lived close together. The poet Yun Seon-do and the independence activists Yi Hoe-yeong, Yi Si-yeong and their brothers, 6 in all, lived here, and their house sites are stops on the Jung-gu guided walk. From the Japanese colonial period, shops moved in and it turned into a commercial district.
Myeongdong is regarded as the place where the Catholic Church in Korea first took root. The cathedral stands on the site of the house of the martyr Kim Beom-u. Bishop Blanc bought the land, and the French priest Father Coste designed the church, which was completed in 1898. Close to 1,000 believers lent a hand, and it became the first Gothic church in Korea built of brick.
The Myeongdong Theater building in the middle of Myeongdong-gil was sold to a financial company and nearly demolished. In 1995 the arts community launched a campaign to win it back, and in 2003 the government bought the land and building and restored them. It reopened as the national Myeongdong Theater on 5 June 2009.
In March 2000 Myeongdong was designated a special tourist zone together with Namdaemun and Bukchang-dong. In 2016 a vendor registration system turned the street vendors into licensed street stalls, and in 2023 it became a mandatory price-display area, where every shop must post its prices.