Property was acquired, and by early 1891, landscape architect Mason L. Brown of Detroit had nearly completed a plan of the grounds.

Pratt & Koeppe of Bay City designed the gatehouse and chapel, and work on these structures began in late 1891 and was completed in 1892.

[3] The cemetery covers 60 acres of flat terrain, with a central access roadway and curving roads to either side.

The foliage on site includes a large variety of shade trees (beech, cedar, maple, oak and pine) along various ornamental trees and shrubs, including catalpa, hawthorn, purple plum, redbud, lilac, sandcherry, spirea and dogwood.

The chapel is a one-story buff sandstone structure approximately thirty feet square, with a hip roof clad in slate.