[1] The graveyard was established in January 1787 by the First Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, from land on the westside of old Baltimore Town purchased by a committee of noted laymen consisting of William Smith, John Boyd, and William Patterson (locally prominent merchant, civic activist, owner of future Patterson Park, and father of noted Baltimore socialite/debutante Elizabeth ("Betsy") Patterson, (1785–1879), who married Jerome Bonaparte in 1803, brother of the French Emperor Napoleon I) from Col. John Eager Howard, (1752–1827), former commander of the famous "Maryland Line" regiment of the Continental Army in the American Revolution.

In July 1852, Westminster Presbyterian Church was erected overtop the graveyard, its brick piers straddling gravestones and burial vaults to create what later Baltimoreans referred to as the "catacombs."

For years, it was thought that the Gothic Revival-style Westminster Presbyterian Church was built in response to a new city ordinance prohibiting cemeteries that were not adjacent to a religious structure.

Research in the early 1980s by historian Michael Franch found no such ordinance—and revealed a more complex motive: The congregation hoped that the new expansion church would serve Baltimore's growing "West End"—new churches were then springing up in every corner of the city in response to a dramatic increase in population—and provide protection to an aging, old-fashioned, 18th Century-style "burying ground" that few saw as an appropriate resting place for the more up-to-date 19th Century.

Revived in the 1920s by a number of new active members, the congregation continued until 1977 when the Westminster Presbyterian congregation was disbanded/disorganized and historical assets were reverted to the local Presbytery of Baltimore and arrangements were made when care of the church building and premises was assumed by the University of Maryland's School of Law, which occupies the rest of the square block to the south, southeast and east bounded by West Baltimore, North Paca, West Fayette and North Greene streets.

In 2006, the Westminster Preservation Trust installed more than 20 interpretive signs around the burying ground and catacombs to provide historical and biographical information on the area.

Other Marylanders include: Westminster Hall and Burying Ground is home to the grave of American author Edgar Allan Poe, arguably its most famous resident.

Today, this "who's who" of early Baltimore is overshadowed by the later presence of the promising writer, poet and author Edgar Allan Poe, who was buried here in October 1849, following his sudden and mysterious death after being found in a sick and semi-conscious state wearing unfamiliar clothes.

By a year later, a substantial church was planned to be erected over the grounds built upon supporting brick and stone arches to preserve the resting places of those interred below.

Elliott (City College), Kerr and Hamilton and Misses Rice and Baer, professors of English and Literature at the Western-Eastern High Schools, was appointed and by April 1872, resolved to apply the monies so collected to erection of a monument over Poe's grave.

Poe's body was exhumed and moved to the new more prominent northwestern site near the cemetery entrance gate at the corner of North Greene and West Fayette Streets.

Shepherd, and the locally famous civic activist, author-artist and orator John H. B. Latrobe, and representatives of several other public schools, colleges and institutions.