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THE THIRTY YEARS (1950-1980) St. John's Cemetery
As recorded in the centennial book, over a number of years St. John's acquired a substantial tract of land, some 35 acres in all. Although the initial intention was to provide burial ground for parishioners, over the years the cemetery came to serve much of East Toronto and its 50,000 graves contain the remains of about 68,000 persons of all denominations.
Several times over the years all the available graves had been sold and more space was needed. In later years there have been several projects to reclaim land along the ravine on the north side of the cemetery. The final such project took place in 1965 at a time when no graves were available. At a cost of some $55,000, what was left of the old creek was diverted into a conduit, and the land above filled in to enable the road to be placed there at the northern edge of the property. This made some 1100 more graves available, more than half of which have now been sold, and was an improvement in other ways. The road was named Hobson Drive in recognition of Bill Hobson's work in spearheading the project, as well as his many other contributions to both church and cemetery.
Such reclamation projects are now at an end and St. John's Cemetery faces a difficult financial future. Being a church cemetery, in the past, graves were always sold at considerably less than comparable rates, and frequently given away. However, the long term effect of this has been that the reserves are now not at all adequate to provide even minimum maintenance. Furthermore, inflation has led to a drastic escalation in wages (the cemetery workers are unionized) with very little increase in income. John A. McCaughan was cemetery manager from 1970 to 1976 and made many efforts to improve efficiency and income, the most important of his innovations being the initiation of Supplementary Services by which the cemetery office now sells monuments, inscriptions and related work. This has added substantially to cemetery income.
In 1977 a major study of the cemetery's operation and future prospects was carried out by Reginald Horton. That study concluded that a crematorium was not a viable option for our cemetery for a number of reasons; but the report also suggested a variety of other steps, one of which has led to the gradual discovery of a small but significant amount of unused and available grave space. Also, after further study, in 1979 the Cemetery Board decided to proceed with the construction of a new type of "Garden Mausoleum-Columbarium" which provides 100 crypts for caskets and 320 niches for cremated remains. This type of interment has become increasingly popular in Toronto and in other areas of North America in recent years. The new structure, situated to the southwest of the cemetery office, was completed in 1980. The successful sale of the spaces in this mausoleum, and in several others like it, provides the best hope for the continuing operation and financial viability of the cemetery.
The cemetery manager since 1976 has been Alan Best, who has worked for the cemetery since his teens, over 24 years now. The Cemetery Board oversees all aspects of the operation of the cemetery, and the Rector and Wardens have exactly the same responsibility for its operation as for that of the church itself as there is no corporate separation between the church and the cemetery.
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