Following multiple transfers of ownership, the Government eventually acquired the site and opened Bukit Brown Cemetery there in 1922.

In 2011, the government designated the area for residential development, which was met with protests from activists who believed the cemetery should be preserved.

[3] George Henry Brown (1826–1882) was a 19th-century British merchant and ship owner who arrived in the Straits Settlements (present-day Singapore) in the 1840s and lived there until his death after an accident in Penang on 5 October 1882.

Brown built a house he called Fern Cottage at Mount Pleasant; he had tried planting nutmeg and coffee on the site but was unsuccessful.

[4][5] Hew Ko, Ewe Hai, and Chong Chew were buried at Bukit Brown Cemetery after their deaths.

[7] Due to the urgency of the situation, certain Chinese did not mind being buried in a municipal cemetery if it meant ignoring traditional burial methods involving geomancy.

In 1917, Tan asked whether progress had been made in acquiring land at Bukit Brown to re-purpose it as a Chinese burial ground.

[15][16] A cemetery temple, which was run by a caretaker, was built and a priest who sold joss sticks and candles was hired.

The municipal president stated it was "not utilized to the extent which we had anticipated", the main reasons being the size and layout of the grave plots, although these were put in place to maximise space.

[27] In 1946, more grave plots at Bukit Brown Cemetery were released for people whose reservations had been taken up during the Japanese occupation and used for pauper burials.

[4] From 2011 to 2012, the area was designated for residential development[c] and many activists were upset by this decision, saying the cemetery was "a distinctive slice of the multi-ethnic country's fast disappearing heritage"[35] and that it should be preserved.

[39] In 2012, the Minister of State for National Development Tan Chuan-Jin announced 5,000 graves would be exhumed to make way for the new, eight-lane Lornie Highway that would cut through the cemetery.

[48] In 2014, a bush fire broke out at Bukit Brown Cemetery that was the about the size of "1½ football fields" which took the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) 2 hours to put out.

[52][53] In 2017, Singapore Heritage Society launched a self-guided trail through Bukit Brown Cemetery that takes visitors around 25 gravestones.

[55] In August 2024, Bukit Brown conservation groups opened an outdoor display called Sounds of the Earth, which features 80 unclaimed artifacts that were collected in 2013, during the construction of Lornie Highway.

[d] The cemetery is bordered by Pan Island Expressway to the south and Thomson Road to the east, and is bisected by Lornie Highway.

[66] The cemetery has a pathway leading inside and is popular amongst paranormal groups with reported sightings of the Pontianak, a mythical creature from Malay folklore that is said to be a vengeful female spirit, originating from women who died during childbirth.

[67][68][69] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government advised visitors to Bukit Brown Cemetery and Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium to be in groups of four and to refrain from taking with them elderly family members.

Although less commonly practised, it has been held annually at Bukit Brown Cemetery since 1996 by the Heng Kang Tian Temple.

[72] Due to its dense vegetation, Bukit Brown Cemetery helps to prevent flooding caused by surface runoff and serves as a carbon storage site.

[76] In 2014, a bush fire that spread to an area of about "1½ football fields" that took the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) two hours to put out.

[78] In 2012, Nature Society (Singapore) recorded 90 resident and migrant birds, along with 48 species of other animals living at the cemetery.

The native fish species were the walking catfish, the Asian swamp eel, the Oxyeleotris marmorata, and the Penang betta.

Animals such as the Pseudotajuria donatana and the Sunda flying lemur from MacRitchie Forest, which is located north of Bukit Brown Cemetery, use the area as an extended foraging ground.

[83] Graves at Bukit Brown Cemetery were built with different materials from Europe and East Asia using traditional building techniques from the 1920s and 1930s.

Oh was a banker of Hokkien descent who moved to Singapore in 1907, running a business at Telok Ayer Street called Chin Kiat with Tan Tiong Sing.

[88][89] On the left side of their gravestone, there is a carving of the Chinese legend Madam White Snake Rescues Xu Xian on the tomb arm.

On the right side of the gravestone, it shows a carving of Chinese folklore character Nezha fighting the Dragon Prince, Ao Guang, at his palace.

[93] About the size of ten three-room Housing and Development Board flats, Ong's gravestone is the largest in Bukit Brown Cemetery.

The granite tiling of Ong's gravestone in the shape of a large half moon is known as the Bright Hall and, according to feng shui practices, gathers qi (气, pronounced "chee") to it.