Machpelah Cemetery was one of Philadelphia's early nonreligious "associate" cemeteries. "Machpelah" refers to the plot of land the patriarch Abraham purchased for his wife Sarah's burial, as described in the Biblical Book of Genesis.

Thought to have been established about 1827, and officially incorporated on May 5, 1832 as the "Machpelah Cemetery Society," the burial ground offered lots for sale by lottery for families, "the interment of strangers at a very moderate charge," and "a Superintendent House for the protection of graves." A lot of land adjoining that of the Union Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery, on the north side of Washington Avenue, between Tenth and Eleventh streets, was purchased and laid out as a burial ground.

By 1890, the cemetery was filled by more than 13,000 interments, the bodies of the dead having become, as described by one member of the Society, sown as "thick as herring" in the grounds. Considered unsanitary and dangerous by the City Board of Health, further burials were prohibited that year.

In July 1894, the cemetery's officials began exploring options for removing the dead. That fall, they contracted with the promoters of a planned cemetery in Yeadon, Delaware County, for lots in what was supposed be a 90-acre affair.

Beginning in December, 1894, and continuing through 1895, many of the remains in Machpelah Cemetery were boxed up and removed to the three-acre "Machpelah Section" of what was to be the large North Mount Moriah Cemetery. The small, three-acre section is all that ever came of the speculative venture, whose management was taken over later by the Graceland Cemetery Company.

The remains of some 400 veterans were removed separately from Machpelah to the Philadelphia National Cemetery in 1895.

The former ground at Tenth and Washington Streets was sold for development and housing was built on the site. No trace of the cemetery remains.