Detroit Area Funeral Homes prior to 1950s

[DtCtyGrl]

Were there any funeral homes located around Mt. Elliott /Elmwood Cemeteries prior to 1950?

[Stinger4me]

I was born in the 40's and can remember when visitation was held in the home of the deceased. Funeral homes[[or parlors) may have started to become the way to go in the early to mid 50's. Hopefully there are some others who can recall the tradition as well.

[Mackenzie68]

Verhyden says they have been in business for over a century. They are in Grosse Pointe.

From their website:
Serving Our Community for Nearly a Century In 1908, Charles L. Verheyden, a 20-year-old native of Grosse Pointe, founded the first Chas. Verheyden funeral home. He opened his first location at his own home on Field Avenue, where he operated the business for two years. Then in 1910, Charles built one of the first funeral parlors in Detroit on Mack Avenue, near East Grand Boulevard. Charles operated this Detroit funeral home for 30 years until he moved the home to its present Grosse Pointe location in 1942.
In 1951, Charles expanded the Grosse Pointe funeral home to double its original size. After these improvements, the renovated funeral home was and is still recognized as one of the finest funeral home establishments in the U.S. The Grosse Pointe funeral home is renowned for its charming Early American colonial architecture and furnishings. The home's comforting, warm atmosphere creates a sense of home for its guests.

[Patrick]

My brother worked for Verheyden for a few years and I had the chance to hear so many stories. The people who run it are a class act by the way. You don't see many funeral homes that big around here anymore.

[kathy2trips]

Verhyden says they have been in business for over a century.... Charles built one of the first funeral parlors in Detroit on Mack Avenue, near East Grand Boulevard. Charles operated this Detroit funeral home for 30 years....

That one would have been at 7330 Mack. I can't exactly tell from Google maps if its still there or not. The list of "undertakers" [[the most prevalent term at the time) from the R.L. Polk 1928-29 Detroit Directory can be found here: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text...=2852&size=300

Whenever someone on my Italian side of the family passed, it was either Bagnasco's, originally at 1537 St. Aubin, or more often, Calcaterra's, which was at 7002 Rivard before the freeway was built. The Polish side usually was at John Skupny at 11402 Conant.

[IrishSpartan]

Were there any funeral homes located around Mt. Elliott /Elmwood Cemeteries prior to 1950?

The old A.H. Peters funeral home that was at Gratiot & St.Patrick for decades has its origins near Elmwood Cemetery. In 1928, Arthur H.Peters was listed as an undertaker located at 2926 Waterloo [[ home & business address). Most of that street doesn't exist anymore because of the housing developments in that area. Waterloo is just south of E.Vernor and that address would have placed have placed it between Joseph Campau & McDougall, just west of the cemetery.

In 1931, Arthur Peters moved to 12057 Gratiot where the funeral home would remain into the late 1980's. Of course they still have the other locations at Mack & Vernier along with Schoenherr & Masonic in Warren.

[Patrick]

The Italian side of my family still uses Calcaterra's in Sterling Heights but I am not sure if the same family owns the name. My grandpa's funeral was at the one off Kelly and 7..reminded me of the Sopranos.

[Mackenzie68]

There is more information for you on the Verheyden web site http://www.verheyden.org/about/eulogy.html The Doug mentioned is Doug Smith, originally from Houghton Lake.

Verhyden for funerals
Miesels for flowers
http://books.google.com/books?id=WZQ...page&q&f=false

[CLAUDE G]

Unfortunatly I have been to Verheydens a few times

[kathy2trips]

I wonder if anyone has a photo of either the first [[on Rivard) or second [[7 Mile @ Kelly Rd.) Calcaterra Funeral Home? I don't remember the 1st, but I remember the second one very well. It was a sweet mid-century modern thing; just an interesting design.

[faygoredpop]

There was also Jarzembowski Funeral Home on Wesson by St. Francis Church. They are now located on W. Warren Ave.

[Kirby]

The people from St Hyacinth and St. Stanislaus had their funerals at Wasik and Frontczak Funeral Homes.

[Campfire Girl]

Assumption Grotto folks were all across the street at Weitenberner

[EastsideAl]

I was born in the 40's and can remember when visitation was held in the home of the deceased. Funeral homes[[or parlors) may have started to become the way to go in the early to mid 50's. Hopefully there are some others who can recall the tradition as well.

I was born around 1960 and at least my Irish-American family still held visitation and wakes in relative's homes into the 70s. You needed a licensed undertaker/funeral director to handle the body, deal with coffins, burial, etc., under the law by then, but a lot of stuff was still done by the family. In the view of my grand-parents, funeral homes and chapels were for people who didn't have a big enough house in the family to fit all their relatives. Also, of course, many more people held the actual services in churches back then [[although not my family).

In recent years though several of my family members have had their funerals in some of the east side/Grosse Pointe funeral homes already mentioned here. Most of my family is buried in Elmwood, and I don't ever remember any funeral homes around there. Before urban renewal tore most of it down the adjacent streets around the cemeteries there there were almost entirely residential, except for the Capuchins and some small industrial stuff on Mt. Elliott. As indicated above, nearby Mack Ave. once had some funeral businesses, and, in fact, two of the major African-American funeral homes on the east side, Swanson and Cantrell, are still there.

[SWMAP]

My grandparents were buried from Daugherty Funeral Home on East Jefferson - somewhere near the Blvd. in 1939 and 1946 respectively. Funeral Mass at Annunciation on Parkview and then to Mt. Olivet Cemetary.

[kellyroad]

I wonder if anyone has a photo of either the first [[on Rivard) or second [[7 Mile @ Kelly Rd.) Calcaterra Funeral Home? I don't remember the 1st, but I remember the second one very well. It was a sweet mid-century modern thing; just an interesting design.

. Not 100% sure but I believe the 7 and Kelly Calcaterra Funeral Home was a converted Kroger Store. Can anyone in the St. Jude area verify if Calcaterra was a tear down/rebuild or a modified building?

[mikefmich]

. Not 100% sure but I believe the 7 and Kelly Calcaterra Funeral Home was a converted Kroger Store. Can anyone in the St. Jude area verify if Calcaterra was a tear down/rebuild or a modified building?

I'm about 98% certain that was not a Kroger store. Fairly modern bldg.....well, for that era.

[mikefmich]

My ma's family were Buffaloes, and besides Verheyden there was a good number of Belgian undertakers in the early decades of the 20th c....many were on Gratiot near present day Farmers Market, or not far from there. It's not a big jump from there to Elmwood or Mt. Elliot Cem.
My great Uncle Phonse Van Goetham made coffins on the side for at least one of them from his furniture shop.

[zitro]

. Not 100% sure but I believe the 7 and Kelly Calcaterra Funeral Home was a converted Kroger Store. Can anyone in the St. Jude area verify if Calcaterra was a tear down/rebuild or a modified building?

I e-mailed a family member of the Calcaterra's who is a friend of mine and asked about this and this was the response:


"It was originally a supermarket. The original funeral home was near Riopelle by the Roma Cafe. And then there was another on East Grand Boulevard."

[mrcalcat]

I e-mailed a family member of the Calcaterra's who is a friend of mine and asked about this and this was the response:


"It was originally a supermarket. The original funeral home was near Riopelle by the Roma Cafe. And then there was another on East Grand Boulevard."

The Calcaterra Funeral Home at 7 Mile and Kelly Road was a supermarket [[I never knew the name) prior to it's reconstruction into an 8 chapel funeral home. It was to replace the Calcaterra Funeral Home at Outer Drive and Gratiot which was sold to The House of Diggs. Roma Cafe was a family favorite and the tiny bar featured many black and white photos of Frank J. and Louis C. Calcaterra from the era of the Italian Ghetto. Frank J. operated the Funeral Home in St. Louis and Louis C. the one in Detroit. I do not recall there ever being a funeral home prior to the Outer Drive one.

[IrishSpartan]

The Calcaterra Funeral Home at 7 Mile and Kelly Road was a supermarket [[I never knew the name) prior to it's reconstruction into an 8 chapel funeral home. It was to replace the Calcaterra Funeral Home at Outer Drive and Gratiot which was sold to The House of Diggs. Roma Cafe was a family favorite and the tiny bar featured many black and white photos of Frank J. and Louis C. Calcaterra from the era of the Italian Ghetto. Frank J. operated the Funeral Home in St. Louis and Louis C. the one in Detroit. I do not recall there ever being a funeral home prior to the Outer Drive one.

You are confusing locations. Calcaterra was never located at Outer Drive & Gratiot. Gordon C. Crabb was located at Outer Drive & Gratiot. In 1960, the Calcaterra family sold the E.Grand Blvd. location[[ just north of Gratiot) to the Diggs family. Also, their was no reason for a black funeral home to locate around Outer Drive & Gratiot back in the 1950's-1960's.

[Hardhat]

My dad, now 83, told the story of what happened after his brother tragically died in a car wreck in 1947. They lived on Military Street in SW Detroit, and brought the casket into the house by removing the front window. It must have taken 12 guys to lift the casket through the window, which was about five feet above the ground. The Irish wake lasted two days, with my grandparents providing the requisite food and beverages to all the family, friends and neighbors who came to their house to pay their respects. The casket, closed because of my uncle's injuries, stayed in the living room the whole time. My dad, about 16 at the time, said he snuck downstairs while everyone else was sleeping one of the nights to open the casket and get a look at his brother. He didn't talk much about what he saw, I think opening the casket is still something he regrets. There was apparently no funeral home involved in the process, unless they hired a hearse to take the casket to Holy Redeemer for the funeral mass and then to the cemetery.

[jcole]

My dad, now 83, told the story of what happened after his brother tragically died in a car wreck in 1947. They lived on Military Street in SW Detroit, and brought the casket into the house by removing the front window. It must have taken 12 guys to lift the casket through the window, which was about five feet above the ground. The Irish wake lasted two days, with my grandparents providing the requisite food and beverages to all the family, friends and neighbors who came to their house to pay their respects. The casket, closed because of my uncle's injuries, stayed in the living room the whole time. My dad, about 16 at the time, said he snuck downstairs while everyone else was sleeping one of the nights to open the casket and get a look at his brother. He didn't talk much about what he saw, I think opening the casket is still something he regrets. There was apparently no funeral home involved in the process, unless they hired a hearse to take the casket to Holy Redeemer for the funeral mass and then to the cemetery.

Hardhat, my husband grew up on Military at Otis in that same time frame. Where on Military was your dad living?

[Hardhat]

They were near the corner of Military and Regular, near the [[long-gone) Amos School.

[SWMAP]

Military Ave.: home to the Donahues, the Mulcaheys, the Barrys. And the neighbors: the McNamaras, the Mulroys, the Morrisseys. I keep company with their lovely ghosts over here.