His successor, William Halbrook (1898–1932), brought to his position his knowledge and experience gained as a florist, and a large portion of Oak Hill's verdancy was the result of his handiwork.

The site selected for the cemetery was, according to a contemporary newspaper account, a “hillock, a wilderness of underbrush and briars, and called at that with a mantle of loess, underlain by sandstone.

In profile, as viewed particularly from the east, the contour of the hill looked like the back of a two-humped Bactrian camel with a central Erosional vale.

Today, interment sites not only blanket the entire prominence, but also cover the flat lands at the foot of the hill on three sides.

[2] An intricate tracery of crossing and curving pathways (now asphalted, one-lane drives) formed a lacy network which conjoined with the site's hill and vale topography and natural arborous properties created a picturesque setting for "the sleeping place of our dead," as one 19th century journalist characterized Oak Hill.

The approach to the main gate was by a 365-foot-long drive which begun at Virginia Street and was bordered on each side by a continuation of the wall.

To the left of the gateway, in the Western Addition, the central attraction was an oblong lake fed by the city water system and containing a small island.

[3] In 1868, the city began efforts to secure designation of the Union veterans’ areas as federal property, eventually succeeding with a Congressional appropriation and recognition in 1898.

Several years later, in about 1903, the Fitzhugh Lee Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument in remembrance of the 24 soldiers who died for the South.