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Old Posted Dec 17, 2016, 3:08 AM
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Great Canadian Graveyard Thread

Yup, I'm doing it.

Go ahead and post your big city cemeteries, church side graveyards, and small town resting places. Or even, former graveyards that are now under the central core.

The north east corner of Ottawa's CBD was once the city's first graveyard, the final "resting place" for canal workers and laborers of Bytown.


http://www.bytown.net/oldcemeteries.htm

In the 1860s, the graveyard was moved to accommodate the new capital's business district.

Over the years, dozens of bodies were found, when the NAC was built, infrastructure upgrades part of the subway tunnel work and work around office towers.

The area today.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Chambers

Then there's MacDonald Park off Rideau Street. Not sure when it was moved, but soon after, bodies would rise up on rainy days. They eventually decided to build a hill with a gazebo on top.


http://ottawaphotography365.com/2012...-gardens-park/

The two largest cemeteries today are Notre-Dame on St-Laurent at Montreal, with 124,000 graves including that of Wilfrid Laurier, and Beechwood, home to the National Military Cemetery and final resting place of Sir Robert Borden and Tommy Douglas, behind Notre-Dame Cemetery, with 75,000 graves.

Laurier's grave, Notre-Dame (1872).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-...metery_(Ottawa)

Beechwood (1873)


http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca/about-us/

Gazebo serving as final resting place for Tommy Douglas, his wife (and many others)


http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca/

Last edited by J.OT13; Dec 19, 2016 at 4:55 PM.
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Old Posted Dec 17, 2016, 4:13 AM
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My favourite in this part of the world is the cemetery in St-Pierre et Miquelon.

Terre Neuve et St-Pierre et Miquelon by R C, on Flickr

Terre Neuve et St-Pierre et Miquelon by R C, on Flickr

*****

In St. John's, most of the oldest cemeteries have long since been built over. There are a handful of small, very old cemeteries dotted throughout the core - and a couple of surviving large ones.

One of the main ones is the General Protestant Cemetery. It's where most of the non-Catholics, including early immigrants from Asian and Muslim countries, are buried.

As our upper class was traditionally the Anglican minority, it has some (locally) famous graves - former Prime Ministers and the like.









All the rest look more or less like that. Generally (especially in Catholic cemeteries) there are more and tackier statues, candles, and less of a rigid organization.
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Old Posted Dec 17, 2016, 6:58 PM
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Where we buried my uncle this fall, small prairie cemetery pretty much in the middle of no where. Have a brother, uncle and many other relatives buried here.



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Old Posted Dec 17, 2016, 10:09 PM
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Evocative!
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Old Posted Dec 23, 2016, 6:35 PM
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Nice pictures. No picturesque images from me, but I've often wondered how Calgary's MacLeod Trail S. came to bisect a cemetery.

Google Maps Streetview Image

Does having a major thoroughfare running through a cemetery happen more often than not around the country?

Last edited by Scruff Bucket; Dec 25, 2016 at 11:46 AM.
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Old Posted Dec 25, 2016, 3:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scruff Bucket View Post
Nice pictures. No picturesque images from me, but I've often wondered how Calgary's MacLeod Trail S. came to bisect a cemetery.

Google Maps Streetview Image

Does having a major thoroughfare running through a cemetery happen more often than not around the country?
A lot of cemeteries were moved to allow for developments, but I can't recall one bisected by a highway. Honestly though, not surprised.
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Old Posted Dec 25, 2016, 5:21 PM
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Actually, on closer inspection, it looks like 3 different cemetery parks (Roman Catholic, Union, and Burnsland cemeteries) bounded by a network of intersecting roadways in that local area (esp. MacLeod Trail S.E., Spiller Rd S.E., and 34th Ave. S.E. -- see map of area!)
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Old Posted Dec 25, 2016, 6:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scruff Bucket View Post
Nice pictures. No picturesque images from me, but I've often wondered how Calgary's MacLeod Trail S. came to bisect a cemetery.

Google Maps Streetview Image

Does having a major thoroughfare running through a cemetery happen more often than not around the country?
The cemetery was never bisected. Before the LRT was routed under the hill, Macleod Trail used to run on the SE side of the cemetery where Spiller Road is now and Victoria Road used to run over top of the hill where Macleod Trail now runs.
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 9:28 AM
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Thanks Speedog, for the historical clarification. It's still something that's attention-worthy and memorable for someone not of or not familiar with the area or its history, when you're driving down that stretch of MacLeod Trail, and encounter seeing headstones on both sides of such a major road.
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 11:20 AM
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cool thread idea.JOT13..Interesting facts.
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 4:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by speedog View Post
Where we buried my uncle this fall, small prairie cemetery pretty much in the middle of no where. Have a brother, uncle and many other relatives buried here.




R.I.P, but no Calgary..You don't get to add them into your census count!
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 4:48 PM
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Originally Posted by Scruff Bucket View Post
Thanks Speedog, for the historical clarification. It's still something that's attention-worthy and memorable for someone not of or not familiar with the area or its history, when you're driving down that stretch of MacLeod Trail, and encounter seeing headstones on both sides of such a major road.
No problem, I've been here in Calgary long enough to remember the detours around the cemetery while the road over top was closed for the LRT construction - if I remember correctly, it was quite controversial at the time but so have been other major infrastructure expansions. Over time though, those controversaries tend to get forgotten - a generation or two passes and it becomes all just a few historical footnotes.
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 4:58 PM
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R.I.P, but no Calgary..You don't get to add them into your census count!
No problem but it is interesting that the man lived the last two thirds of his life in a larger urban area but was buried in such a remote and almost forgotten place - if the church weren't still there, it would be a pretty much unnoticeable cemetery.

On a side note, my family and I quite enjoy walking in cemeteries - they are quite fascinating and often the older and larger urban cemeteries can contain a surprising amount of wildlife. In Calagry, I believe dogs are not allowed in cemeteries although you will see them on-leash - we've lived on the doorstep of Calgary's largest public urban cemetery and have seen deer, great horned owls, baby jack rabbits and coyotes on multiple occasions. In fact, many nights we can go outside and hear the coyotes calling in the cemetery - it's kind of cool to get that bit of nature so far into the city.
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 5:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J.OT13 View Post
Yup, I'm doing it.

Go ahead and post your big city cemeteries, church side graveyards, and small town resting places. Or even, former graveyards that are now under the central core.

The north east corner of Ottawa's CBD was once the city's first graveyard, the final "resting place" for canal workers and laborers of Bytown.


http://www.bytown.net/oldcemeteries.htm

In the 1860s, the graveyard was moved to accommodate the new capital's business district.

Over the years, dozens of bodies were found, when the NAC was built, infrastructure upgrades part of the subway tunnel work and work around office towers.

The area today.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Chambers

Then there's MacDonald Park off Rideau Street. Not sure when it was moved, but soon after, bodies would rise up on rainy days. They eventually decided to build a hill with a gazebo on top.


http://ottawaphotography365.com/2012...-gardens-park/

The two largest cemeteries today are Notre-Dame on St-Laurent at Montreal, with 124,000 graves including that of Wilfrid Laurier, and Beechwood, home to the National Military Cemetery and final resting place of Sir Robert Borden and Tommy Douglas, behind Notre-Dame Cemetery, with 75,000 graves.

Laurier's grave, Notre-Dame (1872).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-...metery_(Ottawa)

Beechwood (1873)


http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca/about-us/

Gazebo serving as final resting place for Tommy Douglas, his wife (and many others)


http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca/
The oldest Ottawa cemetery was the Barracks Hill cemetery, which you mentioned. It closed in the 1840s to allow for the construction of modern downtown Ottawa. As you mentioned, bodies have been exhumed on a number of occasions especially on Queen Street, in fact, right in front of my Dad's old office building. From there, they opened MacDonald Gardens, named after Sir John A, himself, and that remained a cemetery until the early 1870s, when the city wanted cemeteries outside the city limits, probably for public health reasons. Many of the bodies were exhumed (not all) and moved to the new Notre Dame and Beechwood cemeteries. I researched one person, likely first buried at Barracks Hill, his stone is preserved in Notre Dame cemetery.

There are a lot of tiny cemeteries in the outskirts of Ottawa with interesting histories of the old farm communities. One called Freeman cemetery was removed to make way for the expansion of Ottawa airport and the bodies relocated to Pinecrest Cemetery in west Ottawa. Another former cemetery on Ogilvie Road in east Ottawa was moved but I am not sure where the bodies were taken to, maybe Beechwood.

One cemetery that I have noticed many times in Toronto is located in the middle of the Highway 427/401 cemetery interchange. They have built the interchange around it. I have often wondered about the history of that small cemetery. This is Richview Cemetery.



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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 5:17 PM
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The graveyards in Moncton are nice but generic. My contribution therefore will be the Old(e) Burying Ground on the corner of SGR & Barrington Street in downtown Halifax. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in the city and is the home of the only Crimean War memorial in Canada, predating confederation.







Source: http://ns1763.ca/hfxrm/crimeamon.html
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Old Posted Dec 26, 2016, 5:30 PM
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On second thought, there is one interesting (albeit small) cemetery in Moncton. It is the burial ground at the Free Meeting House on the lower portion of Mountain Road, close to the downtown core.

The Free Meeting House was built in the style of a New England type congregational church (complete with box pews) in about 1820, and is the second oldest surviving structure in the city (the oldest being the Treitz Haus built in 1769).

The Free Meeting House was open for use by people of all faiths. At the time of it's construction, there were probably fewer than 300 people living in the Moncton area.





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Old Posted Dec 28, 2016, 5:43 PM
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Here's St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Cemetery in Stephenville. This is the only old cemetery we have, it predates the US base and has graves that date back to the early 1900s. Unfortunately, the edge of the hill has eroded greatly over the last 100 years and a substantial portion of the graveyard has been lost. This has also led to the beach and small creek at the bottom of the hill being referred to as Deadman's Creek, on account of the occasional coffin/body that falls out the hill as it erodes. Apparently this began after the tsunami of 1929 took out the natural lands end leaving the softer soils behind it exposed to the elements.

DSC_0305

And a similar angle from a couple of weeks ago with the new monument in place which records the names of all the people to have been buried there. A nice touch since many of the oldest graves and markers have long since disappeared
DSC_0904
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