Park Lawn Cemetery


Park Lawn Cemetery is a large cemetery in the Etobicoke area 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.
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.
Controversy arose in 1995 when the company re-zoned a section of the cemetery to permit construction of a condominium building. While the building was strongly opposed by some who had purchased lots, or had residents buried there, 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.

Notable interments

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

Athletes

The cemetery contains a mass grave containing the remains of 75 "Home Children" from Britain.

Other cemetery locations

Five other cemeteries affiliated with Park Lawn are located in or near Toronto: