Oak Hill Cemetery, located between 17th and 19th Streets and 11th Avenue and 13th Court North, is Birmingham's oldest. It was a burial ground by April 1869, and was marked as "City Cemetery" on the original plats for Birmingham. In 1871 the City of Birmingham purchased from the Elyton Land Company 21.5 acres of land for a city cemetery, later named Oak Hill. The deed was issued December 29, 1873. Most of the burials at Oak Hill were interred before 1905, including founders of the city, early mayors, a Revolutionary soldier, numerous Civil War veterans, and the first male child born in the city, Richard Powell McAnally. The earliest marker memorializes Jesse Thompson, the father of Mayor Burgess Asbury Thompson. There is a large section in the southwest corner where many indigent dead were buried from about 1883 to 1888, in an area referred to as ‘Potter's Field' on cemetery maps. After 1888, most indigent dead were buried across the city at Red Mountain Cemetery, after which the Potter's Field saw very little use. Most of the more than 1400 burials in this area are unmarked, and there are no known maps that show exactly where these burials are. Since 1913 Oak Hill has been under the care of the Oak Hill Memorial Association, a group created to preserve and maintain the monuments, grounds, and records of the cemetery. The New Deal-era Works Progress Administration carried out improvements to the cemetery in the 1930s. Though the vast majority of the burial spaces have been used, Oak Hill Cemetery remains an active cemetery, averaging fifteen burials per year. The cemetery has been placed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, and was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 13, 1977. It was the first cemetery in the State of Alabama to be listed on this prestigious register.

In the early 1900s, a portion of the Potter's Field that was thought to be unused land was used to create 17th street and a number of residential lots. However, later records confirmed this space actually contained hundreds of unmarked graves.