St. James cemetery was founded in the 1840s as a burial plot for Toronto's Anglicans and is the oldest cemetery in Toronto. Necropolis Cemetery soon followed after it outgrew its previous site in what is now Yorkville as a non-denominational burial plot. Both cemeteries are within a couple of blocks of one another adjacent to the Don Vale Neighbourhood alongside the western edge of the Don Valley. As the two oldest cemeteries in Toronto, the St. James and Necropolis cemeteries are the final resting places for many of early Toronto's most famous residents.

The Necropolis features a monument commemorating Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, two rebels who were hanged for their participation in the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.

Penina Coopersmith, Cabbagetown: The Story of a Victorian Neighbourhood (Toronto: James and Lorimer Company, 1998)