The conference originally had four members: Central, Cleveland, Humboldt and Mechanic Arts. In 1911, Cleveland became Johnson High School. Washington joined the conference in the 1920s with Harding soon to follow. In 1941 the "little" high schools of Marshall, Monroe, Murray and Wilson were added to the City Conference and the number of schools in the conference soared to ten. Marshall closed as a senior high in 1953. Ten years later, Wilson would close with most of its students attending the newly built Highland Park. The next change in the conference was the closing of one of its original members, Mechanic Arts, in 1976. One year later Monroe would do the same. In 1977, the conference added four private schools from the St. Paul area: Cretin, Derham Hall, Hill-Murray and St. Thomas Academy. In 1979 Como Park Senior High School incorporated most of the students from Washington and Murray which had closed the previous year.

In 1987, ten years after being admitted to the conference, Hill-Murray and St. Thomas were dropped from the conference. That same year Cretin and Derham Hall merged into a co-ed facility. In 1996 the newly built Arlington High School became part of the eight-school conference (they did not compete at the varsity level in athletics until the fall of 1997).

After the 2002-03 season, Cretin-Derham Hall left the conference and began competition in the Suburban East Conference in the fall of 2005.

Following the 2009-10 season, Arlington ceased to exist and was replaced by Washington, who began playing varsity sports in the fall of 2012.