Beechwood has been serving the City of Vaughan and the neighbouring community of Downsview since 1965. While the cemetery’s trees recently fell victim to an invasion of the Asian Long-horned Beetle, its 120 acres of gently rolling landscape still contain a number of mature trees, as well as large, colourful flowerbeds that are seasonally planted. In addition, new trees have been, and continue to be planted so that Beechwood will again be the lush, tranquil haven it once was. Birdhouses and feeding stations dotted throughout the cemetery serve to attract birds and other wildlife.

Beechwood offers a variety of burial options, including:

• A full range of interment choices providing for ground burial, cremation and mausoleum entombment;
• The Mausoleum of the Madonna;
• Veterans’ section.

Beechwood has a wide selection of burial options. These include:

• Single graves, which can accommodate two caskets 
  with a flat memorial;
• Single graves, either adjacent to a limestone wall, on which a marker can be placed, or adjacent to a wrought-iron memorial rail supporting teal bronze markers;
• Single graves that permit an upright monument;
• Larger lots of two or more graves that permit an upright monument.

Increasingly chosen as an option in the commemorative process, cremation is simply one method of preparing remains for final disposition. Many who choose cremation will also want a lasting memorial, and a place for family and friends to go to pay tribute and remember. Often, the final resting place is in a columbarium, which is an arrangement of niches containing cremation urns.

For those who choose cremation, Beechwood offers many options:

• Cremated remains can be scattered in Beechwood’s memorial scattering
  area, or interred in a grave, family lot or urn space;
• Beechwood Mausoleum, which opened in 1994, offers glass-fronted niches
  for those who wish to place small mementoes beside the visible urn;
• Niches in an elegant domed outdoor columbarium;
• Other urn-burial options are available, such as sites adjacent to granite boulders or limestone walls.

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This choice, which provides for above-ground burial indoors, involves placing a casket inside a crypt, which is then sealed. Beechwood has four mausoleums. Because of the limited amount of space in the Mausoleum of the Angels and in response to the continuing needs of the community, the Mausoleum of the Madonna was opened in 2009.

The Mausoleum of the Madonna, an impressive two-storey, 43,000 square feet southern Italian-inspired building was built to meet the cultural and religious need of the community.

The Mausoleum of the Madonna Features:

• Single, companion, vertical companion and couch crypts;
• Crypt fronts of Italian white Carrara marble;
• A choice of bronze or stainless steel vases, lamps and photo frames;
• Private family rooms separated from the main corridors by locking glass gates. Each room features a roman-style leather bench and chandelier;
• A central chapel open to the second floor and topped by a large skylight, filling the area with natural light;
• Magnificent statuary, including a 10-feet tall Welcoming Madonna in a recessed alcove in the chapel;
• An espresso lounge;
• Secured code-key access;
• Elevator access to the upper floor;
• No hidden maintenance fees such as electrical bills.

There is a veterans’ section dedicated to Canadian and Allied veterans and their spouses. As a recognition of veterans’ service to their country, the costs of interment rights in this section are reduced.