Prominent Americans such as Uncle Sam Wilson, Russell Sage, and Emma Willard, at least fourteen members of the United States House of Representatives, and the founders of both Troy and Lansingburgh are buried at Oakwood.

"[4] It also offers a famous panoramic view of the Hudson River Valley that is said to be the "most concentrated and complete overview of American history anywhere in America".

[4] Rural cemeteries are burial grounds typically located on the fringe of a city that offer a natural setting for interment of the dead.

[9] The plan consisted of roads, man-made lakes, dense vegetation, and rolling hills, covering about 300 acres (120 ha), including the modern sections A through Q. Sidney also designed the original superintendent's house and receiving tomb, neither of which exist today.

Boetcher brought in rare and foreign plants to help beautify the cemetery, including umbrella pines and Colorado blue spruce.

This was the burial site for many of Troy's earliest inhabitants; the city had bought lot number 102 in Section N for re-interment of 146 graves.

In response to its popularity, many memorials include benches in their design, aimed to invite visitors to rest while enjoying their visit.

[13] The cemetery originally owned about 110 acres (45 ha) on the east side of Oakwood Avenue, but sold the land in two transactions in the 2000s (decade).

Many rural cemeteries, including Oakwood, subsequently became virtual outdoor sculpture museums, displaying the works of well-known contemporary sculptors as memorials to the deceased.

[18] Because of its popularity as a public park, many memorials included benches to invite visitors to rest while visiting the large, hilly property.

Downing on the National Mall in Washington, D. C., sculpted the memorial for Major General George H. Thomas, which incorporates a white marble sarcophagus topped with a bald eagle.

[10] William Henry Rinehart's final work, a life-size sculpture of Julia Taylor Paine, resides in Oakwood.

[10] J. Massey Rhind, known for his statue of Crawford W. Long in the National Statuary Hall Collection,[23] is the artist behind the Robert Ross Monument.

[11] The most significant building on the property is the Gardner Earl Memorial Chapel and Crematorium, a Richardsonian Romanesque structure built between 1887 and 1889, which sits near the edge of the escarpment about 300 feet (91 m) above the Hudson.

The building was financed by William S. Earl, a successful Troy manufacturer, as a memorial to his son who became ill and died on a trip to Europe in March 1887.

"[32] The interior of the chapel is marked by quartered oak ceilings, bluestone floors, and five original Tiffany stained glass windows.

It was designed by Henry Dudley of New York City and built in 1860 in the English country Gothic style, complete with a nave and transept floor plan.

The Strope Mausoleum is a simplified Greek Revival structure, with a bronze door in the Art Nouveau style displaying an angel surrounded by lilies.

The Tracy Mausoleum, incorporating the most eclectic mix of design influences on the property, has a rock-faced stone exterior covered with foliate carvings.

Russell Sage, the wealthy financier and member of the United States House of Representatives from Troy, is interred alone; his second wife Margaret decided to be buried with her parents in Syracuse.

[42] From this point, one can view Albany and the Empire State Plaza (most notably the Corning Tower and Alfred E. Smith Building), the Helderberg Escarpment, South Troy, downtown Troy, Lansingburgh, Watervliet, Green Island, Cohoes, the Cohoes Falls, Waterford, the Hudson River, the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers, and the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal.

The Troy Cemetery Association claims that the view offers the "most concentrated and complete overview of American history anywhere in America".

[56] Phineas D. Ballou, who served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, spent part of his youth residing in Troy and was buried at Oakwood after his accidental death in 1877.