The earliest sections of the museum building were first home to the First Presbyterian Church, and the church still owns and maintains a historic cemetery that is part of the museum site. The first burials were in 1831 and the last was in 1926. Here lie some of the major figures of early Greensboro and the state of North Carolina, including former Governor John Motley Morehead. Here too lie veterans of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War. In recent years volunteers have added many unusual plants to the cemetery grounds.