It was founded in 1851 as a privately owned secular cemetery open to the public, but it primarily served the city's African American community.

Two public schools and a recreation center were constructed atop the cemetery in the late 1960s, during which time hundreds of corpses were unearthed and summarily disposed of.

That's because there were numerous unmarked slave graves, unidentified interments alongside identified ones, and illegal or so-called "bootleg" burials—burials made in the dead of night without cemetery knowledge (a common practice within communities whose members could not afford the costs associated with official burials).

As the graves were moved, Bell ordered more than 500 short tons (450 t) of fill dirt placed atop 12 acres (49,000 m2) of the cemetery to smooth it out.

After complaints were made to the Corporation Counsel of the city of Washington, D.C., Bell agreed to uncover these graves and restore the cemetery's plot boundaries so that families could find burial sites they owned.