[2] The first burial in what today is Springwood Cemetery occurred in July 1812, after Elizabeth Blackburn Williams (1752–1812), the mother-in-law of prominent early Greenvillian Chancellor Waddy Thompson, expressed a desire to be buried in the family garden.

[5] Springwood retains its rural cemetery design elements and the 1876 landscape planning of prominent New South architect G. L. Norrman.

The entrance gate, designed by local architect James Lawrence and built of Indiana limestone, was completed in 1914.

[8] The northeast corner of the cemetery, which was used as a potter's field for African Americans and indigent whites has perhaps only a dozen remaining headstones, although the area is believed to contain hundreds of graves.

The city of Greenville contributes to the maintenance of the cemetery, but there is no perpetual care fund, and the graves themselves remain private property.