July 2024
In many European, it’s common for cemetery graves to be re-used after as little as three to five years, long enough for the body of the deceased to decompose to a skeleton. After the “lease” on the grave expires, the bones are exhumed and either placed in a common ossuary, or cremated and stored in a columbarium.
In the United Kingdom, they frequently employ a practice called, “lift and deepen,” a process where the old remains are temporarily removed to allow for the grave to be deepened, then replaced in the bottom of the grave while new bodies are placed on top.
In North America, graves in cemeteries are supposed to be a place of eternal rest for the deceased. They are purchased and “owned” by the deceased for eternity. However, sometimes as cities grow, re-development plans make it necessary to re-locate graves to another cemetery.
The Chalmers Presbyterian Cemetery, in what was then Scarborough Township, was once such cemetery that was re-located due to sale of the church and cemetery land. Located on Lot 34, Concession C, in Scarborough Township, the northeast corner of what is now St. Clair Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue, the cemetery, also known as the Chalmers York Town Line Church Cemetery, had it’s first burial around 1858.
In 1888, Chalmers Presbyterian Church closed and the congregation was amalgamated with York Station (East Toronto) Church in 1892. The following year, the new combined church, called Emanuel Presbyterian Church, was built at the corner of Swanwick and Benlamond Avenues. The old church on St. Clair was demolished, leaving only the small church cemetery, which continued to be maintained by Emanuel Presbyterian Church until it was closed in 1941.
In early 1952, the cemetery property was sold to a development company and by May of that year, all the remains from the cemetery were removed and re-interred in Pine Hills Cemetery at St. Clair Avenue and Birchmount Avenue, by the trustees of the church. A small, single obelisk was placed atop the new graves, comprising Plots 815 to 825 in Section S, listing the names of all the deceased that had been re-located.
The original tombstones were also buried in the new plot.
Sources: Chalmers Church (mountpleasantgroup.com), Cemetery Overcrowding is Leading Europe to Recycle Burial Plots – TalkDeath, Columbarium – Wikipedia.
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