St. Michael's Cemetery

This ten acre cemetery, which is hidden behind stores, office buildings and houses on Yonge Street, St. Clair Avenue and Balmoral Ave., opened in 1855. It is reached by a narrow lane running between two stores on the west side of Yonge Street and extends west nearly to Foxbar Rd. Its back end can be seen from parking lots behind the Imperial Oil and the Imperial Life Buildings. The mortuary vault (1855) was designed by Joseph Sheard, an important Toronto architect and the city’s mayor in 1871-2. It was used for storing caskets in the winter when the ground was frozen. This octagonal building, designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in December 1975, is considered one of the finest of its type in Ontario.