Ocean View Funeral Home & Ocean View Burial Park

Personalization and celebrations of life

Located across the street from Central Park, Ocean View Funeral Home is here to help you through an emotionally challenging chapter of life. Our team is well-versed at customizing funeral services. Our dedicated funeral planners speaks with your family to discover the passions and interests of your loved one and helps plan a tribute that beautifully represents his or her life.

We want to tell the story of every individual life we honour. From small touches to elegant events, we work with your family to create a one-of-a-kind funeral or memorial. Whether it's a favourite sports team, a preferred musical style or an event for an art-lover, we incorporate the things that made your loved one happy. We also provide keepsakes and mementos.

Catering and receptions

Gatherings are common after a funeral service, and Ocean View is happy to accommodate your friends and family for a catered reception. With space for 75 people, our reception space provides a warm, comfortable and convenient place to enjoy a meal with loved ones while reflecting on cherished memories. From coffee and tea to seated dinners, our caterer works directly with you to create a menu to fit your specifications. Or you can choose from one of our set menus, including Filipino, Asian and Italian cuisine.

Cremation services

Ocean View Funeral Home no longer has an on-site crematorium, but we coordinate cremations through a sister location, Forest Lawn Funeral Home. If you would like a witness cremation, let us know. Cremated remains can be interred at Ocean View Burial Park if you wish.

Our funeral chapel

The chapel here is one of the larger in the Lower Mainland. It seats 200 guests. The chapel has a church-like appearance, with a large stained-glass window, sparkling chandeliers and pew seating. The chapel is equipped with a projector and screen for the display of multimedia tributes—which we are happy to create for you.

Serving diverse cultures

Ocean View Funeral Home serves families of all cultures and religions. Our staff speaks French, Cantonese, Mandarin, Filipino, Croatian, Italian and Japanese.

For Buddhists, we have relationships with monks who to perform chanting and food offerings at funerals. We also honour the cultural traditions of Italian, Croatian, Vietnamese and Filipino families and are happy to customize funeral services to any culture, tradition or request.

We understand some families require immediate cremation or burials in accordance with religious beliefs. Ocean View Funeral Home can accommodate urgent requests.We are also experienced at the transportation of earthly remains both to and from Canada to other nations.

We are here for you day or night. Just call us when you need us.

History

Ocean View Funeral Home has provided funeral services to Burnaby families since 1988, but Ocean View Burial Park has been around since 1919. Burnaby's landmark Ocean View Burial Park was British Columbia's first non-sectarian cemetery created as a for-profit business enterprise.

The cemetery's design was the vision of Albert F. Arnold, who was an officer of the Canadian Trust Company. Mr. Arnold remarked he was "always depressed by the lack of beauty in so many places of internment and inevitable neglect that finally reduced them to long-grassed places of unhappy memories.”

As a result, Mr. Arnold purposefully created a cemetery that had a park-like atmosphere where families could create happy memories. One local newspaper described the landscape of the cemetery, reporting, "The design includes ornamental trees and shrubs, beautiful flower beds and smooth winding walks and drives …”

A growing business

In 1918, the Ocean View Cemetery Company received an option to purchase a 40-acre parcel in the Municipality of Burnaby. Site preparations began in 1919 and the first interments followed shortly after.

The initial sections of the grounds were named with patriotic themed names following the trend after the First World War: Empire, Dominion and Crown. Originally, the entire park only allowed flat markers to establish the park-like feel. Now, we also allow upright markers.

In 1928, the design for the Ocean View Abbey was provided by San Francisco architect Wallace H. Hubbert. Wallace specialized in the design of mausoleums. This was the first large-scale mausoleum and columbarium constructed in British Columbia. Although planned to be a much larger structure initially, only 1 wing was completed in 1931. The Great Depression halted further additions. Wallace was responsible for the designs of the Sunset Mausoleums in Berkeley and Eureka, Evergreen Mausoleum in Oakland and others in Merced and Santa Monica.

Funeral home and cemetery expansion

Ocean View Funeral Home and Ocean View Burial Park have grown to be inclusive and serve all faiths and traditions.

Through the 1950s, subsequent work at Ocean View was designed by local architects Sharp and Thompson. George Sharp and Charles Thompson formed Vancouver’s longest surviving architectural firm in 1908. This later expansion included the stone-faced Garden Chapel, built in 1936 as a replica of a Norman church. Prominent stone gates also replaced the original gates at the corner entrance.

The cemetery currently occupies approximately 89 acres, offering families a range of burial options among trees, flowers and gentle hills.

Our chapel, funeral home and offices were constructed in 1988. These facilities allow families to complete funeral and cemetery arrangements in one location, offering convenience and peace of mind. We’re a member of the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers, and we are devoted to providing a high level of service to every family.

Ocean View Burial Park

Ocean View Burial Park is a peaceful cemetery located in a residential area of Burnaby. Aptly named for it's view of the expansive Pacific Ocean, the cemetery offers a lush and peaceful setting sprawling across 89 acres.

The grounds have a distinctly park-like atmosphere, marked by trees, fragrant flowers and rolling hills. Flat markers sprinkled with upright monuments occupy the ground's lush gardens and landscaping, and several water features, including a large fountain and a waterfall area, attract blue herrings and ducks.

Cemetery property options

The cemetery offers a variety of burial options: traditional ground plots as well as mausoleums, cremation gardens, niche spaces, ossuaries, columbaria and private bench estates. The cremation garden has spaces for the burial of urns, and the chapel’s quaint courtyard also has a small garden that memorializes urns in brick or granite walls.

We also offer the only indoor mausoleum option in the Lower Mainland. Though other nearby cemeteries have mausoleums with exterior walls and no interment, each of our 3 mausoleums—Abbey, South and Grand—have a comfortable, serene, indoor space for families to reflect.

The Fountain Estates section of the memorial park has walled and gated estates for ground burial or custom mausoleums.

Abbey Mausoleum

Built in 1920, the Abbey Mausoleum takes visitors back in time with elegant architecture and features of stained-glass murals and a granite statue of Moses. Classical music plays gently inside the mausoleum providing a peaceful place for visitors to reflect.

South Mausoleum

The South Mausoleum features an Asian corridor with mosaic artwork, a chimney for Buddhist rituals and Buddha statues. In fact, many of the grounds have been designed with Feng Shui in mind. You will see some burial plots that are slightly askew because they were designed to lay north to south.

Grand Mausoleum

The Grand Mausoleum is the newest mausoleum. It is located in the southwest section of the burial park. The 4-story mausoleum features a quaint courtyard in the centre, and upper decks that overlook the park. This West Coast-inspired mausoleum holds approximately 8,000 interments and offers specialized memorialization options, including interior and exterior options, single and double crypts, glass-front niches and private family rooms.

Community involvement

Ocean View Funeral Home and Ocean View Burial Park recognize the positive impact it can contribute to the Burnaby community. We are happy to participate in charitable events and support good causes in a number of ways.

Ocean View Funeral Home and Burial Park donates money to various local religious organizations and volunteers with Dress for Success, which provides business attire to women seeking employment. We help train volunteers at Burnaby Hospice throughout the year, attend Easter and Christmas Day services at hospice locations and raise money for the Hike for Hospice event.

We also hold events for families at the park. In December, we host a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony when families can leave handwritten messages for their loved ones. On All Souls' Day, we host Catholic priests who come to bless the mausoleums.

We’re also happy to provide space for local organizations to meet. If you have a cause you think we could help with, please contact our staff to find out how we can help.