Opened in 1876, in a tranquil and secluded location on the South Platte River, Riverside was a popular choice for wealthy families until the 1890s when the Burlington Railroad built a main line adjacent to the site. Prior to the development of art museums and other cultural institutions, the funerary art gathered at cemeteries cataloged cultural developments in a region. Riverside’s extensive collection of carved ornamental stone and irreplaceable white bronze (zinc) monuments makes it a significant source of early settler art in the Rocky Mountain West.

Harvey C. Lowrie’s plan for the 77-acre property was inspired by Mount Auburn in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lowrie’s design featured dense trees, lawns, and a central rose garden with curvilinear paths that parallel the river. Since 1900, the Fairmount Cemetery Company, owners of Denver’s Fairmount Cemetery (1891), have operated Riverside.

The cemetery accepted its last interment in 2005. Over the past decades, the neighborhood has become a largely industrial area a few blocks from Interstate 70. Riverside Cemetery was listed on the National Register in 1994 and is listed on the Colorado Register of Historic Places.