In March 1816, Philadelphia City Council resolved to close the city public burying ground located on Lombard Street, between 9th and 10th Streets, provided that a new ground was secured with in year. A year later, on March 1st, 1817, the City purchased at a cost of $2,000, "a lot in Penn Township, adjoining the Vineyard Town" at the corner of the now-vacated George and Charles Streets to comply with that ordinance.

In May, 1818, the City Council ordered that the lot be made ready "as a place for interment of the bodies of strangers and persons not members of any religious society of their decease," and that a house for the gravedigger be built. A subsequent ordinance passed that September made it an offense, punishable with a fine of twenty dollars, to inter any deceased person in any of the public squares or city lots other than the ground at the Vineyard. 

By 1855, after many years of burials, it was noted by City Council that the burial ground was being complained about as a disagreeable nuisance to the neighborhood. By an

Ordinance approved November 8, 1856, the Commissioner of City Property was authorized and directed to have removed from the City Burial Ground, the bodies buried there, to the Blockley Almshouse burial ground, and for a new burial ground to be established in the 21st Ward -- which was eventually done at Hart's Lane.

Yet, in 1858, a council select committee found that the Coroner still continued to bury at the Vineyard, and passed a resolution reiterating that "hereafter it shall not be lawful for the Coroner, or for any other person to permit, or to cause to be buried any bodies of deceased persons, in the City Burial Ground premises, situate in the late district of Penn Township."

Though burials were removed by the City by 1861, many were missed. As late as 2009, graves from this cemetery were found during construction in the neighborhood.