The largest Catholic burial ground in the District of Columbia, it was one of the first in the city to be racially integrated.

On June 5, 1852, the Council of the City of Washington in the District of Columbia passed a local ordinance that barred the creation of new cemeteries anywhere within Georgetown or the area bounded by Boundary Street (northwest and northeast), 15th Street (east), East Capitol Street, the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, and Rock Creek.

White, the 51-year-old priest who had led St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church since 1857, was the individual most responsible for the creation of Mt.

[5][6][7] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, which then covered the District of Columbia, purchased 40 acres (0.16 km2) of Fenwick Farm for the cemetery.

[6] Because the burial grounds at St. Matthew's, St. Patrick, and St. Peter churches were all full by that time, a number of graves were moved to the newly established Mount Olivet in order to make room at the old cemeteries for new burials.