Moose Jaw Cemetery

The heritage value of the Moose Jaw Cemetery lies in the architecture of the Milford Funeral Chapel. Built in 1911, the chapel was designed by local architect R.G. Bunyard who also designed many of Moose Jaw’s commercial, institutional and public buildings between 1906 and 1929. The chapel exhibits Gothic Revival elements such as buttresses and a steeply pitched gable roof. This roof overshadows a small, but prominent hip roof bell tower that surmounts the gable roof of a porch. Upper portions of the chapel feature mock half-timbering and stucco typical of the Tudor Revival style. The chapel also has basement racks and an internment door in the main-storey floor that allowed for internment services and storage of remains during an era when frozen ground prevented burials.

The heritage value of the Moose Jaw Cemetery also lies in its use as a mortuary site in which people of different racial, cultural, and religious backgrounds are buried side by side. It was the first permanent cemetery in the community and contains remains re-interred from a cemetery hastily created in 1883. Grave monuments, which often feature symbolism in their design, tangibly representing many lives that have contributed to the development of the community, including, First Nations, North West Mounted Police, early homesteaders, prominent business and arts people, leaders of the Chinese and other ethnic communities, veterans, and victims of the 1918-19 influenza epidemic. Since its establishment, the Moose Jaw Cemetery has stood as a local landmark and a link to the early history of Moose Jaw.

Source:

City of Moose Jaw Bylaw No. 5065, 1999.