Located on the western fringe of the city, the earliest portions of the cemetery date to 1798; it is the community's oldest public burying ground.

The cemetery's location at the foot of Mount Greylock gives it excellent views of the surrounding area, and of the urban core of North Adams.

It includes a fairly steeply sloped hill and a bowl-shaped valley, and is lined by grassy paths laid out in a grid.

Members of the Knight family were among the first to introduce textile manufacturing into North Adams, its early source of growth and prosperity in the 19th century.

North Adams' second public cemetery, located in the southern part of the city, was opened in 1898.