Tales from the Crypt: St. James Cemetery is about to complete two historic renovations

For nearly 180 years, St. James Cemetery has been the final resting place for more than 224,000 people, and counting. And today, the oldest working cemetery in the city is full of life.

The Toronto landmark has been featured as locations for such TV shows as “Shadowhunters” and “Orphan Black” and featured prominently in the 1980 cult horror classic “Prom Night.” And before the pandemic, the cemetery housed students from local schools.

“This is all part of our engagement strategy to raise the cemetery’s profile within the downtown community,” says John O’Brien, St. James’ chief operating officer. “A lot of people tend to avoid cemeteries, it’s part of our culture that denies death. But by promoting a cemetery as a place of passive recreation, (people) can be more comfortable.”

With age come problems. Slope erosion on the cemetery grounds has led to the largest exhumation in Ontario history, a project that has seen hundreds of graves relocated, and the crematorium has required significant upgrading. These are initiatives in which the Cathedral of Santiago has committed to invest.

“Cemeteries should be part of the community,” says O’Brien. “They must not be hidden.” Although activity varies from year to year, St. James Cemetery is currently experiencing its peak season.

The Parliament Street location is the second burial ground for St. James’s Cathedral; the first opened at King and Church streets in 1797. Located next to the spectacular church, the spiritual home of Toronto’s Anglican community, the original cemetery saw a considerable amount of activity, so much so that 50 years after its founding, it was being destroyed. approaching its maximum capacity. “The city of York was growing so fast,” says O’Brien, “in the 1840s they had to find a more suitable location.” Cathedral officials purchased a 35-acre piece of land in Rosedale Valley at the corner of Parliament, south of Bloor, at the time outside the city limits, as most of Toronto’s 18,000 residents lived south of Queen St.

The design was laid out in 1842 and the new cemetery opened in 1844. Built in 1861, the adjoining chapel of St. James-the-Less has since become famous in its own right. In 1990, Parks Canada National Historic Sites named the sandstone and limestone structure, with its pitched roof and low side walls, protective entrance portico, bell tower, spire and stained glass windows, as one of the finest examples of the ecclesiastical architecture of the Gothic Revival in the country. The chapel has helped make the cemetery “very attractive as a film location,” says O’Brien.

The characteristics of the land Outstanding examples of funerary architecture, O’Brien says, include the cemetery’s cast-iron gate and sandstone pillars (built in 1905) and small family mausoleums. “In the old days, families were much more local, so when they bought a burial plot, they could have 10 to 16 graves,” he says. “If they were a family of means, they could erect quite an important monument. They are granite works of art, about 15 to 20 feet tall.”

The property’s natural beauty is due in part to the “highly diverse population of trees that date back close to the original age of the cemetery,” says O’Brien, adding that some oaks are nearly 150 years old. Geographically, the cemetery features two distinct levels along with a well-wooded cliff.

The opening of St. James Cemetery for public use (running, dog walking, hiking, picnicking, and art (such as drawing, painting, and, for school children, grave carving)) is part of its engagement program , and St. James officials are now used to being approached by businesses for filming. “The cemetery has attracted series or productions that required a cemetery with distinctive styles of monuments,” says O’Brien. “It has the feel, presence and atmosphere of a graveyard from a bygone era.”

St. James’ Cemetery “is one of the few downtown cemeteries, (which) makes it a familiar location in many productions,” says John Rakich, an Ontario-based film and television location manager.

Rakich explored St. James’ as a place for the supernatural TV series “Shadowhunters” in 2017. “It worked creatively for the story of that episode and for our production schedule,” he says. “It’s got a great flat layout at the beginning and then it works its way up rolling hills into the Rosedale Valley.” The cemetery, he says, “is a little older than some and very close to the street.” In fact, the stretch of road in front of Parliament Cemetery between Wellesley and Bloor is often used by productions to park their trucks when they film elsewhere in the neighborhood.

But first and foremost, St. James’ Cemetery and Crematorium is a working cemetery, though traditional casket graves have become more expensive in recent years, O’Brien says. Since 1844 there have been more than 100,000 burials, including members of some of Toronto’s most prominent families: Dominion Bank founder James Austin; members of the Gooderham and Worts families, who were part of Canada’s early distilling history; Casimir Gzowski, an engineer known for his work on the Canadian Railways and the Welland Canal; former solicitor general, co-prime minister and attorney general Robert Baldwin; and many distinguished members of the clergy. The crematorium, which began operation in 1948, has extended the life of the cemetery, as cremations allow for a higher density of burials.

All of this requires maintenance. St. James Cathedral has made a significant financial investment through two ongoing projects at the cemetery. The first is to restore and stabilize the south side slope of the ravine to reduce the chance of graves migrating downhill, an effort that has been ongoing since July 2021. Officials are now proceeding with the new burials. The second is an upgrade to the crematorium, which will see the installation of two new retorts (or chambers where bodies are cremated) and the construction of a garage area to allow for the discreet delivery of the deceased, a project whose completion is imminent.

Obviously, the priority for the Cathedral of Santiago is the traditional functioning of the cemetery. “We’ve made a promise to every family that we’ll keep their graves in perpetuity and that’s not something we take lightly,” says O’Brien. “The growing use of the cemetery by film companies helps us deliver on that promise. However, we have guidelines that these companies must follow.” When the video cameras are rolling, the cemetery staff is committed to protecting the anonymity of those buried there. Even if the headstones are engraved, the film crews cannot show any of the names, and the shots must be out of focus.

The cemetery welcomes a growing number of genealogical researchers and is also open to school visits. “Students, usually from schools within walking distance, come for Remembrance Day or to complete history projects,” says O’Brien.

The goal, according to O’Brien, is to change the way people view cemeteries. “Cemeteries are all around us, and often we don’t notice them unless we’re attending a funeral,” he says. “If we can get people to come here for other reasons, even if it’s just for a walk, it makes the cemetery, in a very real way, come alive.”

O’Brien believes that the residents of the cemetery would approve of being part of the world of the living and appearing in movies and on television. “I think they would like the idea that their presence is still felt,” he says. “They are bystanders to all this modern activity.”

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