Part of the cemetery site will house the Merchant Building, under construction since early 2023, requiring an archaeological study and exhumation of remains left in the graveyard.

The graveyard site was at the southeast corner of present-day Park and Spruce streets, in a wooded and somewhat swampy area at the time of creation.

In 1824, the council provided for the appointment of a sexton, to manage the grounds and dig graves, thus formalizing the operation of the graveyard.

At one time called "the Grave Yard of the City of Columbus", a new graveyard opened on present-day Livingston Avenue in 1841.

In the 1850s, some residents supported the graveyard's continued maintenance and improvements, while others wanted it closed to future interments or completely abandoned.

[1] In the 1850s, some residents owning lots at the graveyard decided to have their relatives' remains exhumed and reburied in Green Lawn Cemetery.

The offer was taken up by many lot owners, and allowed the city to unanimously pass a new ordinance in 1864 prohibiting any further burials in the graveyard.

The company took over the first railroad station in Columbus, Union Depot, located across High Street from the graveyard and built in 1850.

Most of the graves had been removed privately, but some remained when the city condemned the land in 1889 in order to widen Spruce Street.

[1] In the late 1970s, additional graves were discovered during a sidewalk project at North Market; the remains were relocated to Green Lawn.

The archaeologists found 38 grave shafts under Spruce and Wall streets, finding the remains of 39 individuals, more than what the city expected.

[5] The R Section of the cemetery, county-owned and used for North Graveyard reburials since the 1800s, was marked with an artwork named Departed Denizens, a 32,000-lb.