This February I will find myself in Texas as part of a winter roadtrip/getaway and I may have a chance to vist this museuem; http://www.nmfh.org/ I am told it is the National Museum of Funeral History. Does anyone know of this establishment and can anyone offer advise of any "do not miss" displays at the museum? I would hate to learn after the fact that I missed something important. Thanks all.
Winter Roadtrip
- Thread starter Earle W Whitcher
- Start date
Gregg D. Merksamer
PCS Life Member / PCS Publicity Chairman / PCS Ele
Having visited the National Museum of Funeral History myself on February 1st, 2008, I can vouch it's worth the trip! Oddly, the main reason I went to Houston that week was for the funeral of my Aunt Liz. It goes without saying that my Uncle Norman thought it extremely odd that I would go THERE, of all places, the day after his wife's service!
Lucky for you, I took detailed notes on the exhibits, anticipating I might do a feature for THE PROFESSIONAL CAR or the Northeast Chapter newsletter THE CRITERION. PCS people who never get to Texas will feel like they've been there after reading these essentially-uncut observations ...
Museum opened October, 1992 off the southbound Interstate 45 service road (Ella Blvd) at 415 Barren Springs Drive. Coming north from central Houston, take exit 64 (Richey Road) and make a U-turn. Hours are 10am-4pm Monday-Friday and noon-4pm Saturday (MAY HAVE CHANGED SINCE 2008). 20,000 square foot facility claiming to house the country’s largest collection of funeral memorabilia; at time of my visit, was planning a 10,500 square foot addition that devotes 5,000 square feet to papal funerals.
Entrance has a bust of museum founder Robert L. Waltrip, a third-generation funeral director who wanted to preserve industry memorabilia. Familiar names on nearby Life Members plaque include PCS members Tim Cenowa, Lloyd Needham and Mahlon Thompson, whose 1938 Henney Packard flower car (Best-of-Show at the 1994 PCS International in Pittsburgh) is prominently displayed with a PCS decal in the rear window.
About two dozen other horse-drawn and motorized funeral vehicles on display. The most remarkable, maybe, is a massive funeral bus on a 1916 Packard truck chassis. Had enough room for 20 mourners, with the casket carried horizontally in a compartment behind a driver’s seat wide enough for four or five people. Originally operated by a San Francisco funeral home until the vehicle tipped backwards on a steep hill (the rear axle is only 2/3 of the way back). After the body was removed from its original chassis, a ranch hand lived in it for 40 years.
1916 S&S carved panel hearse on Buick chassis originally used at Drake & Son Funeral home in Chicago. Previously displayed at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. Far-plainer, eight-window limo-style hearse next to it is a 1925 Dodge bodied by Keystone of Columbus, Ohio. Has a single rear door and disc wheels.
Naturally-finished 1921 Rock Falls made from six different kinds of wood displayed in front of a faux garage facade. Powered by 29 hp Continental “Red Seal” six, motor # 8A-389. Original Indiana title certificate #400135 IDing original owner as Emanuel Miller of Brazil, Indiana. Donated 1992 by Robert L. Waltrip & Buck Kamphausen.
All gray, oak-bodied 1924 Ford TT hearse with mahogany interior was one of only 16 made by the Hoover Body Co. of York, PA. Served a funeral home in Elizabeth City, NC for nearly 50 years. Restored 1982 and donated by Dick & Raymetta Stowers of the Towers Funeral Home in Brandon, Florida.
Exceptional curb appeal displayed by 1926 S&S DeLuxe Washington finished to Golden Anniversary specs with two-tone green paintwork, gold trim and aluminum disc wheels. The split rear doors are equipped with crank-down windows and diamond-patterned button upholstery.
A gray-and-black 1929 Superior Studebaker Bellevue combination ambulance that was in service, ironically, with the F.J. Miller Funeral Home in Nebraska through 1953.
1935 Superior Studebaker Dictator Six was originally sold to a Wisconsin funeral home but traded back fifteen years later. George Feaster of the Moss-Feaster Funeral Home bought it from Superior’s sales manager in 1979. Features four rear-hinged doors and rear bumperettes for easier casket access.
1936 S&S Buick Alexandria carved panel hearse with slide-out casket table was also donated by Pat Brown & Buck Kamphausen via the Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery & Mortuary of San Rafael, CA.
1939 Superior LaSalle Mount Claire on 156.5-inch wheelbase Series 50 chassis was used until 1962 by Arnold & Fred Veile of the Worland Furniture Co. of Wyoming. Features bronco-busting 1939 Wyoming license plates and Sidroll side-servicing.
Silver 1951 Superior Cadillac Landaulet with column shift was also donated by Buck Kamphausen & Patrick J. Brown of Vallejo, CA in 1992.
Bodywork on 1972 Toyota Crown donated by Ron Hast has a copper-covered roof and elaborate carvings like a Shinto temple. The casket compartment is only three feet wide, but is similarly ornate with its four, globe-shaped hanging lanterns. Even with a standard station wagon wheelbase, this hearse cost $140,000 to build in 1995 dollars.
1973 Mercedes-Benz hearse with six-window landau roof was used for the September 18th, 1982 funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco.
Some of the Museum's most interesting vehicle photos depicted a Venetian funeral gondola with a skull-and-crossbones and the funeral trolleys operated by the Los Angeles Railway between Washington Boulevard’s “Mortuary Row” and the old cemeteries on Florence Avenue.
HORSE-DRAWN FUNERAL VEHICLES: One advantage of a motorized hearse is that it wouldn’t run away with the deceased on board.
1850 horse-drawn from Germany with disproportionately tiny wheels was made by P. Burkhardt Wagenbruer of Gahlenza B. Oederan. Calliope-like 1860 hearse with acid-etched glass was found, still in use, in Mannheim, Germany in 1989.
An all-white child’s hearse constructed around 1900 by M. Arthur Bisaillon of St. Remi, Quebec. Only about 5/8 the size of an adult hearse.
Chicago-made 1888 Kimball 4-passenger Brougham or “Widow’s Coach” that was traditionally the first vehicle behind the hearse. Used by Drake & Son of Chicago. Coachwork features curved front corner windows, a speaking tube and leather upholstery with brocade floral bolsters. The body was reinforced with fiberglass during the restoration.
Full-scale dioramas include a turn-of-the-century casket factory (sign from the Marsellus Casket Co. below Woodrow Wilson’s implores the staff to “Work Well From whistle To Whistle”) and a replica of the tent where Dr. Thomas Holmes became the “Father of U.S. Embalming” during the Civil War. His embalming table was an old door resting on two whiskey barrels. Holmes charged $7 for an enlisted man and $13 for an officer. Learned here a “basket case” originally referred to Civil War amputees who needed one to be taken off the battlefield.
The Presidential funeral exhibit features the original eternal flame that burned at JFK’s grave from 1967-1998; one of the fender flags from Ronald Reagan’s S&S Cadillac hearse; and the $1,568 bill that Joseph Gawler’s Sons Mortuary (then at 1730-1732 Pennsylvania Ave.) sent Mrs. Woodrow Wilson after her husband’s funeral on Wed., February 6th, 1924. Itemized costs included $850for a Belmont lead-coated steel casket, $75 for embalming and $293 for cars, with the hearse renting for $25 while the 26 limousines cost $9 each.
The centerpiece of Presidential funeral exhibit is a detailed model of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train car “United States” as it appeared on April 21st, 1865, with the casket being unloaded into a horse-drawn hearse after 14 day, 1,666-mile journey from Washington, DC to Springfield, IL that included stops in Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, NYC, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis and Chicago. Involving seven states and 15 different RRs, it was the largest & longest funeral in U.S. history but was just one hour late arriving at its final stop. The miniature’s undercarriage has a total of 725 parts including the springs. The horse-drawn hearse had been loaned by the City of St. Louis, and was worth $6,000 with its eight plumes and silver, gold and crystal trimmings.
Signs all over floor: PLEASE DON’T OPEN CASKETS
Interesting caskets include an acrylic “money casket” decorated with $643 worth of uncirculated coins and, before thieves broke in and stole the inner panel, $1,000 in bills; a transparent child’s casket inspired by the Walt Disney movie Snow White; and a truly macabre “casket for three” custom ordered by a Colorado couple who contemplated murder-suicide after the death of their small child (they attempted to get a refund after changing their minds).
My favorite exhibit? Almost certainly the twelve festive “fantasy” coffins hand-carved in Teshi, Ghana at the Kane Quaye workshop. A top theme is the profession of the deceased, with a crab, lobster or outboard motor being used for a fisherman while the giant chicken equated a family matriarch to a “mother hen.” Leopards and eagles are favored by tribal chiefs, while a taxi driver can be laid to rest in an miniature Mercedes complete with hood ornament. Local customers can buy soft wood coffins for $300 and up - still a fortune in a country where the average wage is $400 yearly - while the ones made for overseas art collectors are fashioned from sturdier hardwoods.
Lucky for you, I took detailed notes on the exhibits, anticipating I might do a feature for THE PROFESSIONAL CAR or the Northeast Chapter newsletter THE CRITERION. PCS people who never get to Texas will feel like they've been there after reading these essentially-uncut observations ...
Museum opened October, 1992 off the southbound Interstate 45 service road (Ella Blvd) at 415 Barren Springs Drive. Coming north from central Houston, take exit 64 (Richey Road) and make a U-turn. Hours are 10am-4pm Monday-Friday and noon-4pm Saturday (MAY HAVE CHANGED SINCE 2008). 20,000 square foot facility claiming to house the country’s largest collection of funeral memorabilia; at time of my visit, was planning a 10,500 square foot addition that devotes 5,000 square feet to papal funerals.
Entrance has a bust of museum founder Robert L. Waltrip, a third-generation funeral director who wanted to preserve industry memorabilia. Familiar names on nearby Life Members plaque include PCS members Tim Cenowa, Lloyd Needham and Mahlon Thompson, whose 1938 Henney Packard flower car (Best-of-Show at the 1994 PCS International in Pittsburgh) is prominently displayed with a PCS decal in the rear window.
About two dozen other horse-drawn and motorized funeral vehicles on display. The most remarkable, maybe, is a massive funeral bus on a 1916 Packard truck chassis. Had enough room for 20 mourners, with the casket carried horizontally in a compartment behind a driver’s seat wide enough for four or five people. Originally operated by a San Francisco funeral home until the vehicle tipped backwards on a steep hill (the rear axle is only 2/3 of the way back). After the body was removed from its original chassis, a ranch hand lived in it for 40 years.
1916 S&S carved panel hearse on Buick chassis originally used at Drake & Son Funeral home in Chicago. Previously displayed at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston. Far-plainer, eight-window limo-style hearse next to it is a 1925 Dodge bodied by Keystone of Columbus, Ohio. Has a single rear door and disc wheels.
Naturally-finished 1921 Rock Falls made from six different kinds of wood displayed in front of a faux garage facade. Powered by 29 hp Continental “Red Seal” six, motor # 8A-389. Original Indiana title certificate #400135 IDing original owner as Emanuel Miller of Brazil, Indiana. Donated 1992 by Robert L. Waltrip & Buck Kamphausen.
All gray, oak-bodied 1924 Ford TT hearse with mahogany interior was one of only 16 made by the Hoover Body Co. of York, PA. Served a funeral home in Elizabeth City, NC for nearly 50 years. Restored 1982 and donated by Dick & Raymetta Stowers of the Towers Funeral Home in Brandon, Florida.
Exceptional curb appeal displayed by 1926 S&S DeLuxe Washington finished to Golden Anniversary specs with two-tone green paintwork, gold trim and aluminum disc wheels. The split rear doors are equipped with crank-down windows and diamond-patterned button upholstery.
A gray-and-black 1929 Superior Studebaker Bellevue combination ambulance that was in service, ironically, with the F.J. Miller Funeral Home in Nebraska through 1953.
1935 Superior Studebaker Dictator Six was originally sold to a Wisconsin funeral home but traded back fifteen years later. George Feaster of the Moss-Feaster Funeral Home bought it from Superior’s sales manager in 1979. Features four rear-hinged doors and rear bumperettes for easier casket access.
1936 S&S Buick Alexandria carved panel hearse with slide-out casket table was also donated by Pat Brown & Buck Kamphausen via the Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery & Mortuary of San Rafael, CA.
1939 Superior LaSalle Mount Claire on 156.5-inch wheelbase Series 50 chassis was used until 1962 by Arnold & Fred Veile of the Worland Furniture Co. of Wyoming. Features bronco-busting 1939 Wyoming license plates and Sidroll side-servicing.
Silver 1951 Superior Cadillac Landaulet with column shift was also donated by Buck Kamphausen & Patrick J. Brown of Vallejo, CA in 1992.
Bodywork on 1972 Toyota Crown donated by Ron Hast has a copper-covered roof and elaborate carvings like a Shinto temple. The casket compartment is only three feet wide, but is similarly ornate with its four, globe-shaped hanging lanterns. Even with a standard station wagon wheelbase, this hearse cost $140,000 to build in 1995 dollars.
1973 Mercedes-Benz hearse with six-window landau roof was used for the September 18th, 1982 funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco.
Some of the Museum's most interesting vehicle photos depicted a Venetian funeral gondola with a skull-and-crossbones and the funeral trolleys operated by the Los Angeles Railway between Washington Boulevard’s “Mortuary Row” and the old cemeteries on Florence Avenue.
HORSE-DRAWN FUNERAL VEHICLES: One advantage of a motorized hearse is that it wouldn’t run away with the deceased on board.
1850 horse-drawn from Germany with disproportionately tiny wheels was made by P. Burkhardt Wagenbruer of Gahlenza B. Oederan. Calliope-like 1860 hearse with acid-etched glass was found, still in use, in Mannheim, Germany in 1989.
An all-white child’s hearse constructed around 1900 by M. Arthur Bisaillon of St. Remi, Quebec. Only about 5/8 the size of an adult hearse.
Chicago-made 1888 Kimball 4-passenger Brougham or “Widow’s Coach” that was traditionally the first vehicle behind the hearse. Used by Drake & Son of Chicago. Coachwork features curved front corner windows, a speaking tube and leather upholstery with brocade floral bolsters. The body was reinforced with fiberglass during the restoration.
Full-scale dioramas include a turn-of-the-century casket factory (sign from the Marsellus Casket Co. below Woodrow Wilson’s implores the staff to “Work Well From whistle To Whistle”) and a replica of the tent where Dr. Thomas Holmes became the “Father of U.S. Embalming” during the Civil War. His embalming table was an old door resting on two whiskey barrels. Holmes charged $7 for an enlisted man and $13 for an officer. Learned here a “basket case” originally referred to Civil War amputees who needed one to be taken off the battlefield.
The Presidential funeral exhibit features the original eternal flame that burned at JFK’s grave from 1967-1998; one of the fender flags from Ronald Reagan’s S&S Cadillac hearse; and the $1,568 bill that Joseph Gawler’s Sons Mortuary (then at 1730-1732 Pennsylvania Ave.) sent Mrs. Woodrow Wilson after her husband’s funeral on Wed., February 6th, 1924. Itemized costs included $850for a Belmont lead-coated steel casket, $75 for embalming and $293 for cars, with the hearse renting for $25 while the 26 limousines cost $9 each.
The centerpiece of Presidential funeral exhibit is a detailed model of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train car “United States” as it appeared on April 21st, 1865, with the casket being unloaded into a horse-drawn hearse after 14 day, 1,666-mile journey from Washington, DC to Springfield, IL that included stops in Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, NYC, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis and Chicago. Involving seven states and 15 different RRs, it was the largest & longest funeral in U.S. history but was just one hour late arriving at its final stop. The miniature’s undercarriage has a total of 725 parts including the springs. The horse-drawn hearse had been loaned by the City of St. Louis, and was worth $6,000 with its eight plumes and silver, gold and crystal trimmings.
Signs all over floor: PLEASE DON’T OPEN CASKETS
Interesting caskets include an acrylic “money casket” decorated with $643 worth of uncirculated coins and, before thieves broke in and stole the inner panel, $1,000 in bills; a transparent child’s casket inspired by the Walt Disney movie Snow White; and a truly macabre “casket for three” custom ordered by a Colorado couple who contemplated murder-suicide after the death of their small child (they attempted to get a refund after changing their minds).
My favorite exhibit? Almost certainly the twelve festive “fantasy” coffins hand-carved in Teshi, Ghana at the Kane Quaye workshop. A top theme is the profession of the deceased, with a crab, lobster or outboard motor being used for a fisherman while the giant chicken equated a family matriarch to a “mother hen.” Leopards and eagles are favored by tribal chiefs, while a taxi driver can be laid to rest in an miniature Mercedes complete with hood ornament. Local customers can buy soft wood coffins for $300 and up - still a fortune in a country where the average wage is $400 yearly - while the ones made for overseas art collectors are fashioned from sturdier hardwoods.
Yea, what he said :agree: It's a great place, very tasteful. Hope you enjoy your trip.
Supposedly used for Abraham Lincoln.
