Although the cemetery is non-denominational today, it continues to be governed by its original charter, with a board of trustees representing the founding Protestant denominations.

Built with Montreal limestone, the original building had a chapel, a room for the cremation chambers, a large winter storage vault and a conservatory filled with exotic plants.

In the 1950s, for maintenance reasons, the conservatory was demolished but the original chapel, on the left of the building, is still intact with a handmade mosaic floor and casket-door that lowers to the crematorium and prep rooms beneath.

[3] Military graves at Mount Royal did not take significance until World War I, when Canada lost over 60 000 soldiers.

After this event, the population of the city started taking public memory more seriously, and gave an entire section of the cemetery to war veterans and fallen soldiers.