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 Limited Partnership, 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.

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. In 1999, Park Lawn opened Paradise Mausoleum; phase two of Paradise Mausoleum was completed in 2007.

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. The cemetery has twice been attacked by vandals, once in 1990 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.

Notable interments

The cemetery contains 96 war graves of Commonwealth service personnel, 19 from World War I and 67 from World War II.

Athletes

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

Politicians

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

Musicians

• Jeff Healey – jazz and blues musician

Businesspersons

• George Harding Cuthbertson – yacht designer, founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian Designs and C&C Yachts, president of C&C Yachts for 8 years
• Sir Henry Pellatt – financier, soldier and builder of Casa Loma (Forest Lawn)

Others

• Gordon Sinclair – journalist with CBC and Toronto Star and for CFRB 1010 radio
• Leone N. Farrell - biochemist/microbiologist whose invention enabled mass production of polio vaccine
• Wally Floody - Canadian fighter pilot and prisoner of war who planned the "Great Escape"
• Stanley Frolick – lawyer, Ukrainian Canadian activist
• Adolfas Šapoka – prominent Lithuanian historian and writer

References