Meant to outgrow and even outclass Troy's Oakwood Cemetery, it was originally designed by Garnet Baltimore,[2][3] the first African-American graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

[3] Baltimore planned on the cemetery to offer visitors a park-like experience, complete with statuary, winding trails, and a large receiving tomb near the entrance.

The receiving tomb was built from granite and featured a copper roof with a large skylight and contained 128 marble catacombs used for storing corpses during the winter.

[4] Due to financial difficulty, the corporation sold all but 22 acres (8.9 ha) to the neighboring County Club of Troy, for use in the construction of its golf course.

Employees from the Town of Brunswick made multiple attempts during the 1990s and 2000s to remove the overgrown brush and plants, which had become a major problem.

A map and database containing all of the gravestones and the names upon them is available at the Town of Brunswick offices for those trying to locate family buried in Forest Park.

[8] In addition, the legends of hauntings also come by stories of the mausoleum doors collapsing to the ground revealing no caskets interred inside.