Cataraqui Cemetery receives historic designation

Posted Feb 2, 2012 By Kristen Coughlar

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EMC News - Kingston's own Cataraqui Cemetery has been recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada.

The Honourable Peter Kent, Canada's Environment Minister and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, recently announced Cataraqui Cemetery as one of four newly designated National Historic Sites in Canada.

"We are ecstatic. We are honoured. (Those) are probably the two best words I could use to describe it," Craig Boals said of the recognition. Boals is the director of operations at Cataraqui Cemetery.

"The news on the street is that cemeteries very rarely receive National Historic designation, the reason being, especially with ours is that we're still an active cemetery. We're not frozen into a particular point in time. We're still evolving and changing."

That being said, the cemetery was recognized as one of the best examples of a medium-sized rural or garden cemetery featuring a number of noteworthy monuments and sculptures as well as being the resting place of many prominent Canadians.

"Rural means the landscape was here to begin with, it was accentuated. The rolling hills, the high points the low points, the ponds, the mature tree standsthe cemetery took the best of all that and worked around those things," Boals said.

He noted that the romantic and picturesque appearance embodied by the rural cemetery is "quite rare in Canada."

"We were the first in Canada to take on that unique model," he said.

The cemetery was established in 1850. The cemetery was incorporated by an Act of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada on Aug. 10.

Boals noted that at that time the local burial grounds were becoming full.

"Skeleton Park had fallen out of use by that time, and the lower burial ground at St. Paul's Church had no more room, and with such an influx of immigrants and being the nation's first capital, Kingston was growing and those inner city cemeteries just couldn't meet the demand."

He also noted that the Cholera and Typhus epidemics created fear that buried bodies of the dead would release gases and fumes that would cause others to become ill.

All this resulted in a call to create a sizable public cemetery outside the city limits.

"From the old Kingston to Cataraqui was a day trip by carriage."

Boals explained that a Quaker burial site was already located at the site of Cataraqui Cemetery. It was deeded to Cataraqui Cemetery in the early 1900s.

"So when I look at our start date of 1850 and I look that we've acquired a cemetery dating back to 1801, without doing a whole lot of research on it, we could possibly be one of Canada's oldest, still active cemeteries."

Boals noted that in its 162-year history the look of the cemetery has remained much the same, as has its dedication to serving the families of Kingston and area.

A big change has been the increase in cremation.

"Our crematorium here has been operating since 1980, and we've provided services over 30,000 families through our crematorium."

The addition of gardens has also been a significant change for the cemetery.

"We're often called a garden cemetery, but today when someone says garden they think of their pansies and their tulips and everything in a little mulch bed, but when we talk garden cemetery we are going back to something that is purposefully landscaped. Grass is cut, trees are strategically placed, the English garden if you will."

In the last 20 years, however, Boals noted that the cemetery has started to incorporate what would be considered today's definition of gardens.

Scattered throughout the cemetery are beautiful examples of 19th century statues and monuments.

"We have a number of monuments that represent different periods in time...as I walk through the cemetery I can see monuments and I can almost give you a date as to their styles," Boals said.

For example, the tall obelisks, like the one found in Sir John A. MacDonald's family plot, point to the fascination with Egyptology during the Victorian era.

There are also a few monuments found within the cemetery that are made out of metal.

"There was a company out of Southern Ontario that only made them for a period of 10 years, from 1880-1890."

One also cannot overlook the number of prominent figures that are found buried in the cemetery. In addition to Canada's first Prime Minister, the cemetery is the resting place of Agnes Maule Machar, founder of the Kingston Humane Society, Charles Sangster, one of Canada's first poet laureates, James Sutherland, the "Father of Hockey", and Sir Alexander Campbell, a father of Confederation just to name a few.

In total, the cemetery is home to 46,000 burials, and it is expanding.

"There is a myth out there perpetuated by the fact that I guess our cemetery looks full...contrary to popular belief and Kingston myth, Cataraqui is not full. We have enough room and space that we've acquired over the years...we can satisfy Kingston's burial needs for another four or five generations," Boals said.

In recognition of the cemetery's recent historic designation, Boals noted that the Cataraqui Cemetery Heritage Society has been formed.

The hope is that the society will help to foster community involvement in the site, and help assist in the maintenance and conservation of the Cataraqui Cemetery and its memorials. New members are welcome. Contact info can be found online at www.cataraquicemetery.ca.




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