About Mount Pleasant Group
Why Our 200th Anniversary Matters to Toronto
Our story is woven into the fabric of this city. When we opened Potter’s Field in 1826, Toronto was still the Town of York – a growing community in need of inclusive burial options. By offering a dignified resting place for all, regardless of faith, we helped shape a more equitable city at a time when choice was limited.
Today, nearly two centuries later, our cemeteries and funeral centres remain integral to Toronto’s identity. They are not only places of remembrance but also green spaces that connect neighbourhoods, preserve history and provide sanctuary in an urban landscape. From Mount Pleasant Cemetery’s tree-lined paths to our newer sites across the GTA, we’ve evolved alongside the city, reflecting its diversity and resilience.
Our 200th anniversary is more than a milestone. It marks Toronto’s growth, its multicultural heritage and the communities we’ve served for generations. It’s an opportunity to recommit to to our early beginnings, ensuring that our work continues to support families and honour traditions for the next 200 years.
Our Origins
The story of Mount Pleasant Group began in the early 1800s, when Toronto was still the Town of York. At that time, only Anglicans and Roman Catholics could be buried in “authorized,” church-run cemeteries. In 1825, a small group of citizens of York came together and petitioned the Province of Upper Canada (as it then was) for permission to purchase land and create a “general burying ground, as well for strangers as for the inhabitants of the town of whatever section or denomination they may be.” The efforts of those citizens and provincial lawmakers of the day resulted in a special Act given Royal Assent on January 30, 1826.
That Act effectively created a statutory trust that authorized five individuals, known as Trustees, to purchase six acres of land in York “to have and to hold the same to, and for the use and purpose aforesaid in perpetuity for ever.” This commitment to maintaining its cemeteries for the perpetual benefit of Toronto-area residents and their loved ones remains at the heart of Mount Pleasant Group’s mandate. It is also now a concept that is embedded within Ontario’s Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, R.S.O. 2002 (FBCSA), the modern statute that regulates Ontario’s entire deathcare sector.
After the passage of the 1826 Act, the Trustees advanced $300 of their own money to purchase six acres of the John Elmsley farm at what is now the northwest corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets in central Toronto; they subsequently sold subscriptions for $1 each to members of the public. The resulting cemetery became known as “Potter’s Field.” It was used as a non-sectarian burial ground for some 25 years, ensuring every family had a dignified place to lay loved ones to rest, regardless of faith.
As the city grew, so did the organization. In 1871, the province incorporated the Trustees of the Toronto General Burying Ground, which today is known as the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries (MPGC) and is governed by a Board of Directors.
Public pressure on government from the residents of Yorkville led to the closure of Potter’s Field in 1875. All the remains buried there were relocated to either the Toronto Necropolis in Riverdale or to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery that opened at its current location in Moore Park in 1876.
From those first six acres at Potter’s Field, today’s Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries has grown to 10 cemeteries across the GTA spanning 1,200 acres, housing some 16,000 trees, and providing perpetual rest to more than 700,000 decedents. Together with its funeral affiliate, Canadian Memorial Services (CMS), MPGC employs more than 600 people. Through every change, MPGC has sought to uphold and honour the mandate set out in those early pieces of legislation: to offer deathcare options to all and uphold its obligations to those interred within its cemeteries “in perpetuity for ever”.