Park Lawn Cemetery

Park Lawn Cemetery is a large cemetery in the Etobicoke district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It currently has around 22,000 graves. It is managed by the Park Lawn Corporation, which also runs five other cemeteries in Toronto. The cemetery offers ground burials and a mausoleum for above-ground interment and cremation urns. It is located south of Bloor Street, west of the Humber River.

Park Lawn Cemetery
Northwest entrance to Park Lawn Cemetery.
Details
Established	1892
Location	2845 Bloor Street West Toronto, Ontario M8X 1A6
Coordinates	43.647094°N 79.500954°W / 43.647094; -79.500954
Type	Public
Style	Non-denominational
Owned by	Park Lawn Corporation
No. of graves	49,000
Website	www.parklawnlp.ca
Find a Grave	Park Lawn Cemetery

History

Park Lawn Cemetery & Mausoleum opened in 1892 as Humbervale Cemetery and was owned by local farmers in the area. It was sold in 1912 and again in 1915 to Park Lawn Cemetery Company, and was renamed to the current name.^[1] In 1999, Park Lawn opened Paradise Mausoleum; phase two of Paradise Mausoleum was completed in 2007.^{[citation needed]}

In 1995, a section of the cemetery was re-zoned to permit construction of a condominium building. While the building was opposed by lot owners, the Ontario Municipal Board approved the project.^{[citation needed]} The cemetery has twice been attacked by vandals, once in 1990^[2] and again in 2006. Both times several youths were convicted of damaging or toppling several hundred stones.

The cemetery contains a mass grave containing the remains of 75 "home children" from Britain.^[3][4]

Park Lawn Corporation

In 2002, Park Lawn purchased Westside Cemeteries Ltd from Service Corporation International giving it five additional cemeteries in the Greater Toronto Area:^[5]

• Riverside Cemetery & Crematorium in Humber Heights-Westmount, Etobicoke, founded in 1892.^[6]
• Sanctuary Park Cemetery, located immediately across the road from Riverside Cemetery and founded in 1927.^[6]
• Westminster Cemetery, located in North York along Bathurst Street south of Steeles Avenue, founded in 1926.^[6]
• Forest Lawn Mausoleum and Cremation Centre in North York on Yonge Street north of Highway 401. The Mausoleum opened in 1911 and added a crematorium in 1980. Sir Henry Pellatt, one of the mausoleum's original directors, is entombed at Forest Lawn as are Neilson Dairy founder William Neilson and members of the Neilson family.^[7][6]
• Hillcrest Cemetery, located north of Toronto in Woodbridge, Ontario, opened in 1916.^[6]

In 2014, the Corporation expanded into the funeral home business by purchasing a 50% interest in the Tubman funeral home chain operating eight funeral homes in Ontario and Quebec and in 2015 it acquired Basic Funerals, low-cost funeral and cremation centres operating in Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area. In 2016, Park Lawn Corporation became a publicly-traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange.^[5]

In the decade since then, further expansion has resulted in Park Lawn Corporation owning 176 funeral homes and 76 cemeteries in Ontario, Quebec, and 17 states in the United States.^[5][8]

Notable interments

Athletes

• Harold Ballard – minor league hockey coach, manager, National Hockey League (NHL) owner Toronto Maple Leafs^[9]
• Glen Brydson – NHL player^[10]
• Lou Cavalaris Jr. – Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame trainer^[4]
• Hans Fogh – Olympic sailor for Denmark and Canada
• Busher Jackson – NHL player^[9]
• Butch Keeling – NHL player, minor league coach, NHL referee^[4]
• Andy Kyle – former Cincinnati Reds outfielder, minor league baseball player, hockey player with the National Hockey Association (NHA) Toronto Blueshirts, golf player^[9]
• Jack Marks – NHL and minor league hockey player
• Lou Marsh – sprinter, Toronto Argonauts football player, Canadian military officer, NHL referee, Toronto Star sports editor^[9]
• Eugene Melnyk – businessman, owner of the Ottawa Senators
• Alex Romeril – minor league and NHA player, NHL referee, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach^[11]
• Marjory Shedd - champion badminton player
• Conn Smythe – ice hockey player and coach, owner of the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs^[9]
• Faye Urban – tennis player

Politicians

• Fergy Brown – Metro Toronto Councillor, city councillor mayor of York, Ontario^[4]
• Rob Ford – Mayor of Toronto
• John MacBeth – Ontario PC MPP (York West and Humber) and provincial cabinet minister^[9]

Musicians

• Jeff Healey – jazz and blues musician^[9]

Businesspersons

• George Harding Cuthbertson – yacht designer, founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian Designs and C&C Yachts, president of C&C Yachts for 8 years
• William McCormick – operated Toronto's High Park Sanitorium and High Park Mineral Baths

Military

• Wally Floody - Canadian fighter pilot and prisoner of war who planned the "Great Escape"
• Park Lawn Cemetery contains 96 war graves of Commonwealth service personnel, 19 from World War I and 67 from World War II.^[12]

Others

• Gordon Sinclair – journalist with CBC and Toronto Star and CFRB 1010 radio^[9]
• Leone N. Farrell - biochemist and microbiologist whose invention enabled mass production of polio vaccine
• Stanley Frolick – lawyer, Ukrainian Canadian activist^[13]
• Adolfas Šapoka – prominent Lithuanian historian and writer