Mount Pleasant Cemetery: Famous Graves & Heritage Memorial Guide

Why Mount Pleasant Cemetery is famous

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Toronto. It is one of the most important cemeteries in Canada. It was named a National Historic Site of Canada in 2000. It got that status for three reasons. The landscape design. The collection of heritage memorials. The many famous Canadians buried there. The cemetery covers 205 acres in midtown Toronto. It is both a working cemetery and a public greenspace. People walk, run, and visit memorial trees there every day.

The cemetery was designed in 1873 by Henry Engelhardt. He was a German born landscape architect. He used the rural cemetery movement as a model. That same movement built Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts and Highgate Cemetery in London. Engelhardt laid out the grounds like a planned garden. There are winding paths, rolling lawns, and a careful mix of native and imported trees. Many of those original trees are still standing today. Each one is recorded on a list.

Mount Pleasant is the resting place of Canadian Prime Ministers, scientific pioneers, business founders, and cultural figures. The result is a 150 year old garden that holds the graves of Canadians who shaped the country. People come for both heritage tourism and quiet reflection.

Where is Mount Pleasant Cemetery?

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is at 375 Mount Pleasant Road in midtown Toronto. The main entrance is on Yonge Street near Merton Street. There are also entrances on Mount Pleasant Road and Moore Avenue. You can reach the cemetery by TTC subway. Davisville and St. Clair stations are both close. The cemetery is open every day, free to the public.

Architectural and landscape character

Mount Pleasant Cemetery shows four eras of memorial design. Victorian era memorials (1873 to 1901) use sandstone and limestone. The shapes include obelisks, draped urns, and angels. Many were carved by Toronto stone shops including the Lount and Beattie firms. Edwardian memorials (1901 to 1914) brought larger family monuments with classical pediments and family names. Mid 1900s markers moved to granite as the main stone. The shapes became simpler upright tablets. Contemporary memorials (after 1970) range from minimal flat markers to one of a kind sculpted designs. The grand piano lid that marks Glenn Gould’s grave is a famous example.

The cemetery is also known for its mausoleum row near the Yonge Street entrance. It holds some of the largest private mausoleums in Canada. The Eaton family mausoleum is the most prominent.

• Glenn Gould (1932 to 1982). Pianist. Flat granite marker shaped like a piano lid.
• Frederick Banting (1891 to 1941). Co-discoverer of insulin. Upright granite monument.
• William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874 to 1950). 10th Prime Minister of Canada. Family plot with marble obelisk.
• Timothy Eaton (1834 to 1907). Founder of Eaton’s department stores. Family mausoleum on mausoleum row.
• Foster Hewitt (1902 to 1985). Hockey broadcaster. Granite upright marker.
• Northrop Frye (1912 to 1991). Literary critic. Plain granite marker.

Memorial design highlights at Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Glenn Gould’s marker is the most photographed memorial at Mount Pleasant. The flat granite stone is shaped to look like the open lid of a grand piano. The opening notes of Bach’s Goldberg Variations are carved into the top. The design ties directly to Gould’s two famous recordings of the Goldberg Variations. He recorded them in 1955 and again in 1981. The marker uses shape, not long inscriptions, to tell you who is buried here.

The Eaton family mausoleum on mausoleum row is the most striking building in the cemetery. It was built in the early 1900s in the neoclassical revival style. It has Doric columns, polished granite cladding, and bronze doors. It is the most ambitious Edwardian family memorial in Canada.

Frederick Banting’s monument is plainer. The Banting family clearly chose to avoid grandeur. The design ideas you see in his stone are clean lettering, medium scale, and no decorative artwork. Those same ideas became standard in mid 1900s memorial design after the 1950s.

Visiting Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Mount Pleasant Cemetery is open to the public every day. Standard hours are 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Hours vary a little with the seasons. There is no admission fee. The cemetery office near the Mount Pleasant Road entrance has free maps and self guided walking tour brochures. Visitors are asked to stay on the paths. Do not picnic on the grounds. Respect any active services. Personal photography is allowed. Commercial photography needs a permit from the Mount Pleasant Group office.

The tree collection is famous in its own right. More than 350 tree species are recorded on the grounds. The cemetery works with the City of Toronto on tree preservation. Many people visit Mount Pleasant just for the trees and the seasonal landscape, not the memorials.

Where is Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto?
Mount Pleasant Cemetery is at 375 Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, Ontario M4T 2V8. It covers 205 acres in midtown Toronto. The cemetery is bounded by Yonge Street to the west, Bayview Avenue to the east, Merton Street to the north, and Moore Avenue to the south.

Who is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery?
Famous Canadians buried at Mount Pleasant include Glenn Gould, Frederick Banting, William Lyon Mackenzie King, Timothy Eaton, Foster Hewitt, and Northrop Frye. The cemetery opened in 1873. It holds more than 168,000 burials.

Is Mount Pleasant Cemetery open to the public?
Yes. The cemetery is open every day from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Hours vary a little with the seasons. There is no fee.

Why is Mount Pleasant Cemetery a National Historic Site?
The Government of Canada named Mount Pleasant a National Historic Site in 2000 for three reasons. The 1873 landscape design by Henry Engelhardt is one of the earliest rural cemetery designs in Canada. The memorial collection spans every major era from Victorian to today. The grounds hold the graves of nationally important Canadians, including two Prime Ministers.