Strangers' Burial Ground

Strangers' Burial Ground

On the northwest corner of Yonge & Bloor, beneath the CIBC, lies the York General Burial Ground, Toronto’s first non-denominational burial ground. Also known as the Stranger’s Burial Ground, or Potter’s Field, this is where people who did not belong to the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church, or people who were unknown and/or indigent were buried. Between 1826 and 1855, 6,685 people were buried there. When the cemetary was closed in 1855, most of the bodies and their monuments were moved to the Necropolis, located at Parliament and Winchester in Cabbagetown. In 1876, the Mount Pleasant Cemetery was opened, and the remaining, unclaimed bodies (approximately 3,000) were removed to Mount Pleasant Cemetery.