Greenwood Cemetery

The City of Owen Sound's Greenwood Cemetery is located on approximately 40 acres of land in the south-western section of the City. Surrounded by beautiful trees and hedges, a heavily wooded ravine runs diagonally through the centre of the cemetery. It is a traditional cemetery with areas for both upright monuments and flat markers. The original house is now used as the cemetery office, with a maintenance building located behind the house.

History

Greenwood Cemetery opened to the public in 1854. In 1927, a Mausoleum was built with an exterior covered in Indiana Limestone and the interior is finished with Italian Marble. The Mausoleum features several beautiful stained glass windows and has a large centre chapel (for year-round use).

A section of the cemetery west of the Mausoleum was developed and landscaped in 1962. This area, known as the Memorial Gardens, boasts beautiful flowering trees and evergreen shrubs. A small chapel built in 1900 has most recently been used as a workshop and storage facility.

Greenwood Cemetery enriches the City, not only as a place of remembrance, but also as an open space and heritage resource.

Regulations and Fees

All cemeteries in Ontario are regulated by the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO).

The City's is licensed by the BAO to Operate Greenwood Cemetery. License Number 3271589.

The regulations set forth in the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act ensure the rights of the public are protected. The BAO publishes the Consumer Information Guide that provides information to the public with respect to what is required, permitted or prohibited in the bereavement sector in Ontario. Separate from the Provincial regulations, each cemetery sets its own by-laws governing how it operates. For more information, please see the Greenwood Cemetery By-law.

Greenwood Cemetery Fees are detailed in schedule H of the City's Fees and Charges Bylaw and in the 2022 Cemetery Tariffs.

Hours

Office hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday. Please call to make an appointment. Mausoleum hours from May to September are Monday to Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Other times by Scheduled Appointment.

Greenwood Cemetery's Potter's Field Monument and Interpretive Plaque Project

Thank you to community representative and volunteer Aly Boltman for leading this initiative.

Welcome to the place where the present and the past meet, the start of a community effort to honour its history and its forgotten citizens.

Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound, Ontario, is home to a Potter's Field where at least 1242 vulnerable people from our community lay in their final resting place completely unidentified, without any visible marker to note a life lived or an individual's story. Hundreds of newborns/stillborn/toddlers, orphans, seniors, the working poor, the homeless and hundreds of members of Owen Sound's black community including those who escaped on the Underground Railroad and their descendants.

Potter's Field (also known as the "Indigent Lot") became operational in 1860 and was in use for more than 100 years. The definition of Indigent is "suffering from extreme poverty."

In 2018, an anonymous donor came forward at the City of Owen Sound's Doors Open cemetery tour and generously offered to support the creation of a permanent monument to honour those in Potter's Field. The City of Owen Sound supports this plan and has agreed to provide a complementary interpretive plaque and website for this project.

Between December 2018 and the end of February 2019, the public was asked for input on ideas for the future design of the Potter's Field monument. Thank you to those who took the time to contribute their thoughts by completing this short survey. The data from the survey was analyzed and presented at the spring 2019 open house.

You can also review the list of all known persons in Potter's Field.

On behalf of the donor and the volunteer committee, thank you,

Aly Boltman

Potter's Field Memorial

The Potter's Field Memorial monument was unveiled at Greenwood Cemetery in May 2021.

Background Information and Staff Reports

Contact Us

808 2nd Avenue East,
Owen Sound, ON
N4K 2H4
Phone: 519-376-1440
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