The present boundaries of the Old City Cemetery were established by the Florida Territorial Council in 1829. Many pioneers and their slaves are buried here, although some early Tallahasseans were buried several hundred feet east of this site.

As Tallahassee's first public cemetery, the site served as the burial place for blacks and whites as early as 1829. Laws required that blacks be buried in the western half of the cemetery, so segregation continued after death.

Prominent African Americans buried here include Thomas Van Renssalaer Gibbs, Reconstruction legislator and educator; William Gunn, one of the first black physicians in Florida; John G. Riley, noted educator; and James Page, founder of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.

The cemetery also contains graves of Confederate and Federal troops (white and black), some of the fatalities from the Battle of Natural Bridge, 1865, which marked the end of the ill-fated Northern attempt to seize the capital during the War Between the States.

A 1936 city ordinance further prevented the sale of burial plots to blacks, and after 1937 most African Americans were buried in the Greenwood Cemetery and later at Southside Cemetery.

Information provided by Florida Department of State.