St. John's Cemetery Norway
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. John's Cemetery Norway is an historic cemetery in Toronto, Ontario. It is located at the intersection of Kingston Road and Woodbine Avenue in the east end of the city just northwest of The Beaches neighbourhood.
The cemetery was founded alongside St. John the Baptist Norway Anglican Church in 1853. It was built to serve the small community of Norway, Ontario, then a considerable distance from the city of Toronto. The land was donated by landowner Charles Coxwell Small. Originally three acres, the cemetery now covers about 35. Over the decades there have been almost 80,000 internments, and over 50,000 grave stones now stand in the cemetery. While attached to an Anglican church, the cemetery is non denominational.
The cemetery is perched on a large sandy hill, that was once one of the large dunes formed by Lake Iroquois. The sand from this hill was also used extensively by the Toronto brickworks, and is thus found in many of the city's older buildings. Today the area has long been fully engulfed by the city
The cemetery was never a site for the burial of the city's elite, with Mount Pleasant Cemetery being the standard resting place for those of prominence. The vast majority of those buried there are representatives of the middle and working class of east end Toronto. There are some prominent figures buried at St. John's. R. C. Harris, Toronto director of public works who built the nearby R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, was interred there in 1945. At the rear of the cemetery there is also a cenotaph honouring veterans of D-Day.
The picturesque cemetery close to the studio district has also become a popular one for filming. The church has also turned to this to get much needed revenue to help maintain the site. Among the movies where the cemetery makes an appearance are To Die For, Angel Eyes, Four Brothers, and Get Rich or Die Trying.
[edit] References
- Official site
- Winston in Norway
- "No need to ask for quiet on these sets: In these hard times, cemeteries and churches are renting out their grounds to film companies to help make ends meet." Joan Breckenridge. The Globe and Mail. Aug 30, 1996. pg. A.1
