Over time, the cemetery has gradually been enlarged toward New Bern Street in 1819, 1849, and 1856 and now contains approximately 7.5 acres (3.0 ha).

The cemetery was enclosed in 1898 by a cast-iron fence that was formerly around Union Square to keep straying livestock out of the State Capitol grounds.

A network of cobblestone driveways with granite curbstones run through the cemetery.

Many persons of Raleigh's and North Carolina's early period are interred at City Cemetery including governors, mayors, politicians, newspaper editors, military officers, ministers, doctors, planters, attorneys, bankers, and Scottish and English stonemasons who helped build the Capitol.

[2] City Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on 12 September 2008.