It was founded in 1871 as a privately owned secular cemetery open to the public, but it primarily served the city's African American community.

This led to a lengthy and bitter battle involving the Graceland Cemetery Association, lot holders, the government of the District of Columbia, and the United States Congress.

Most of the cemetery was purchased by Washington Railway and Electric Company and turned into a powerhouse and streetcar operations complex.

At the time, nearly all non-Catholic cemeteries in the city were racially segregated, with whites-only burial grounds refusing to inter black citizens on their property.

In 1870, a group of progressive white citizens decided to buy a plot of land just beyond the border of the Federal City and build a racially integrated cemetery.

[9] Winding walkways were laid out through the cemetery's gently rolling hills,[7][9] and an expensive caretaker's house was constructed.

In comparison, at the highly popular (and almost all-white) Rock Creek Cemetery, opening and closing a grave cost $6.50.

[16] At the time it closed, several hundred (perhaps thousands) of as-yet unused burial plots at Graceland were owned by blacks.

Although the Board found in January 1878 that the cemetery was not responsible for the typhoid outbreak, it expressed its concern that a major burying ground was so near to homes.

In April 1892, a large number of local residents as well as physicians complained about the foul-tasting and smelling water in the vicinity of Graceland Cemetery.

[22] Investigation by city health officials found that the soil in the southern part of the cemetery was so marshy that graves often filled with water when dug (and had to be bailed out before a coffin could be lowered).

9874,[19] which was introduced by Senator Jacob Harold Gallinger (R-New Hampshire) and Representative John J. Hemphill (D-South Carolina).

Section 2 of the Joint Resolution gave the city commissioners broad power to make "police regulations".

)[5][25] In late March 1893, the D.C. Assistant Attorney said he doubted that closure fell under the general police regulatory power.

The commissioners also moved to ease the grief that some might feel as their loved ones were disinterred; the regulations prohibited the disinterment of anyone under the age of 12 unless one year had passed since their death.

[31] The regulations barring disinterment in the hot months were temporarily rescinded in June 1895, after a lengthy heat wave dried out the marshy ground (making corpses less likely to be in advanced decomposition).

[32] (Despite concerns, the dry weather indeed prevented decomposition and there were no odors emanating from the cemetery despite the large number of disinterments).

On July 1, 1895, a group of lot holders (most of them black) met to protest the removal of bodies from Graceland Cemetery.

Others did not want to see their loved ones buried at Woodlawn Cemetery (which was denigrated as "unenclosed forest and a truck garden"), and preferred to receive money from the sale of Graceland now and make the choice of burial location themselves.

The lotholders voted to form the "Protective Association of the Lot and Site Owners of Graceland Cemetery", and elected Dr. John R. Frances president of the new organization.

[38] The lotholders adopted a constitution for their association, voted to sue the cemetery, and began raising funds for their lawsuit.

On August 26, 1895, Judge Louis E. McComas of the D.C. Superior Court issued a temporary injunction against the Graceland Cemetery Association, barring further disinterments.

Finally, the Protective Association challenged the Act of August 3, 1894, as an unconstitutional violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

[42] The Graceland Cemetery Association won the day, and on October 12, 1895, Edward Franklin Bingham, Chief Justice of the D.C. Supreme Court, dissolved the temporary injunction.

It sought the assistance of Congress, and in January 1897 Senator James McMillan[45] and Representative Joseph W. Babcock (R-Wisconsin)[47] sponsored legislation to permit the cemetery to mortgage its land.

[45][46] The House and Senate quickly passed the legislation, and President Grover Cleveland signed it into law on March 3, 1897 (his last day in office).

It was not until January 9, 1913, that the board of directors first advertised their willingness to distribute the proceeds from the sale of land to the lot holders.

Board members Seymour W. Tullock, Benjamin N. Meeds, Clarence J. Norment, William Tindall, and Odell S. Smith[53] asked Justice Job Barnard of the D.C. Supreme Court for help.

In July 1895, the Northeast Citizens Association, an organization of local residents in the area near the cemetery, asked the city to purchase the burying ground and convert it into a public park.

But the city commissioners opposed the plan, arguing that there wasn't enough residential development in the area to justify the move.