Forest Lawn Memorial Park was founded and designed by Albert F. Arnold, who wanted to design a memorial park “which would be a place of perpetual beauty and which would banish the ‘graveyard’ taint from such places forever.” The 145 acres of Forest Lawn were designed as a garden, which overlooks Vancouver and has a magnificent view of the mountains. Called “God’s Acres,” with white-shelled walks and piped sacred music, the design allowed a natural setting to offer solace to grieve. Bronze memorial plaques were used rather than headstones, which would have marred the garden effect. Arnold acted as a consultant to memorial parks all over Canada and the United States and many of his innovations have become standard practice in North American cemeteries. Equipped with its own greenhouses, the park has more than a million plants of all types. The chapel, which sits on the lower southern slopes, is a sophisticated modernist structure that was designed by renowned local architects McCarter & Nairne.
Tucked into a sloping site in a zone that is now transitional between light industrial and residential uses, the Masonic Cemetery is a beautifully landscaped oasis. Two outstanding features of this cemetery are the Woodward mausoleum, constructed in 1924, and the 1930s entrance gates. These substantial gates are constructed of random-coursed granite, and mark the cemetery’s main entrance off Douglas Road. An elaborate granite mausoleum, built for the prominent Woodward family, is located on axis with the main entry, at the brow of the slope. The Egyptian Revival style of the mausoleum was inspired by the opening of Tutankamun’s tomb just two years earlier, a discovery that sparked world-wide Egyptomania. The Woodward’s department store dynasty was founded by Charles Woodward (1852-1937), who visited Vancouver in 1891 and bought two lots for a store. Woodward’s drug department opened in 1895. In 1901, he took an option on a lot at the corner of Hastings and Abbott Streets and incorporated as Woodward’s Department Stores, which opened in November 1903. The family continued to run the business until 1993, when it went bankrupt and was sold to the Hudson’s Bay Company. A number of the Woodward family are interred here.
Burnaby’s landmark Ocean View Burial Park was British Columbia’s first non-sectarian cemetery created as a for-profit business enterprise. Organized by a group of local investors headed by Lieut. Col. G.H. Dorrell, the Ocean View Cemetery Company offered a place for burials that was not owned or associated with a civic government, religious or fraternal organization. The cemetery’s design was the vision of Albert F. Arnold, an officer of the Canadian Financiers Trust Company, who was “...always depressed by the lack of beauty in so many places of internment and inevitable neglect that finally reduced them to long-grassed places of unhappy memories.” One local newspaper described the landscape of the cemetery: "The design includes ornamental trees and shrubs, beautiful flower beds and smooth winding walks and drives, with a total absence of the usual somewhat ostentatious reminders of the harvest garnered by the grim reaper."
This church was built in 1936 as the Chapel of Peace for the Forest Lawn Cemetery. It was located outside the main entrance of the cemetery at the triangular parcel of land bounded by Sprott, Royal Oak and Canada Way. It served as the location for many memorial services, local community worship and weddings. The Anglican Church purchased and relocated the building to its present site in 1955. The church has been altered with the addition of wings and stucco, but retains its steep front gabled roof and some of its arched windows. It is now used as the First United Spiritualist Church.
File contains photographs of two people, identified as Archie and Dale, in a cemetery. Photographs depict Archie and Dale looking at or posing with headstones and a close-up of an individual headstone.
File contains photographs of two people, identified as Archie and Dale, in a cemetery. Photographs depict Archie and Dale looking at or posing with headstones and a close-up of an individual headstone.
Photograph of the grounds of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery, located by Royal Oak Avenue and Canada Way. Shrubs, gravestones, and a tent are across the lawn. The photograph is taken from on the grounds, facing south. High-rise buildings in the Metrotown area are visible in the distance.
Photograph of the grounds of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park cemetery, located by Royal Oak Avenue and Canada Way. Shrubs, gravestones, and a tent are across the lawn. The photograph is taken from on the grounds, facing south. High-rise buildings in the Metrotown area are visible in the distance.
File contains photographs of unidentified individuals at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, protesting the City's report on the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Master Plan. Photographs depict an individual amongst felled trees and an individual holding a sign that reads "Corporate Spite!" in front of the gates.
File contains photographs of unidentified individuals at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, protesting the City's report on the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Master Plan. Photographs depict an individual amongst felled trees and an individual holding a sign that reads "Corporate Spite!" in front of the gates.