In 1730, the Parish Church of St. Paul's was moved from near Colgate Creek on the "Patapsco Neck" peninsula to the new burgeoning town of Baltimore overlooking "The Basin" at the head of the Patapsco River on its Northwest Branch, and Lot #19 was purchased in the "Original Survey" of that year by county surveyor Phillip Jones from Charles Carroll of Annapolis.

The church site was probably in the area of the future aviation sites of "Logan Field", "Baltimore Municipal Airport" (later known as "Harbor Field" after World War II), and now the grounds of the "Dundalk Marine Terminal" and "Sea Girt Marine Terminal" of the facilities for the Port of Baltimore Laid out in 1692, along with the Parish, this churchyard is the oldest cemetery that is known to have existed in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

To the east lay the Jones Falls Bluffs which stood from 1739 to 1817, over the southwestward "loop" of the stream before its course was further north.

of Greek Revival design by famous local architect Robert Cary Long, Jr. which burned in 1854 and was later replaced by the present building in 1856 which fills that entire property, at the current intersection of North Charles and East Saratoga Streets.

Cemeteries had never been viewed as good neighbors, aside from the fact that they contained the bodies and souls of the departed (who, it was believed, had the ability to wander the land), they could become unsightly and even unhealthy.