Book Description

It is no surprise that cemeteries are frequent tourist destinations - from them we can learn a lot about the history of a city. Wandering through the grounds, reading the monuments and headstones, we are brought closer not only to historical figures but to the everyday people who inhabited the past too. Ironically, it is in cemeteries that we get a real sense of the "living" past.

In Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide,Mike Filey brings us closer to the lives of those who are at rest in Ontario's most beautiful burial ground. Established in 1876 as a cemetery for all, irrespective of race or religion, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, (now stretching from Yonge Street to Bayview Avenue, north of Bloor between Merton Street and Moore Avenue) was immediately perceived as a city attraction, featured in the daily papers, and recommended by city guide books. As well the magnificent grounds (designed by German landscape architectHenry Englehardt) which attracted visitors at the end of the nineteenth century, the cemetery now has an exceptionally rich and textured history and tells the story of Toronto's growth and change.

Collected in this guide, and arranged according to the cemetery layout, are nearly three hundred short life stories, intended to round out the biographies the head stone inscriptions can only hint at. As well as such important Canadian figures as Glenn Gould and Timothy Eaton, the biographies of less well-known Canadians, whose mostly ordinary lives were ended in unusual ways, are also included. Explanations of the funereal stones, descriptions of the shrubs and trees, and detailed maps of the grounds, showing the approximate location of all markers, help the visitor to appreciate some of the cemetery's physical features.

With book in hand, the Mount Pleasant tourist can enjoy Mt. Pleasant's calm and beauty and discover the personal histories that make up Toronto's social past.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide was first published in 1990 andis now out of print. In this second edition 82 stories have been added to the original 206, and a number of photos have been added. ... Read more