A landscaped Victorian burial ground that doubles as an arboretum
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Opened in 1876 as a rural-style landscaped cemetery, Mount Pleasant became the resting place for generations of Toronto's most prominent figures, and one of the city's most significant tree collections.
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Mount Pleasant Cemetery opened in 1876 in what was then the countryside north of Toronto's built-up area, designed in the landscaped, park-like "rural cemetery" style popular in the Victorian era, which favoured winding paths, mature trees and naturalistic plantings over the rigid rows of older church burial grounds like the Necropolis. The cemetery grew alongside the city that eventually surrounded it, its grounds now sitting well within midtown Toronto rather than on its original rural edge.
Notable residents and a living arboretum
Generations of prominent Torontonians are buried at Mount Pleasant, including pianist Glenn Gould and numerous mayors, business figures and cultural icons, making the cemetery a frequent destination for those tracing the city's history through its dead as much as its living landmarks. Beyond its burials, Mount Pleasant holds one of the most significant tree collections in Toronto, formally recognized as a heritage arboretum, with specimens dating back to the cemetery's founding plantings in the 1870s.
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