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EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a weekly series on our region's history coordinated by the Trumbull County Historical Society.
On Saturday, the Trumbull County Historical Society hosted a walking tour of North Park Avenue, spanning from the Packard Apartments up to the Edwards Mansion, or what used to be the AAA headquarters.
One of the oldest, and most notable, buildings along this route included the home that once housed McFarland & Son Funeral Services. Until it closed just a few years ago, McFarland was the longest-running funeral home in Warren.
Starting in a commercial building downtown, where Nova Coffee is today, it moved in 1903 to this historic home on North Park Avenue. William McFarland, the company's founder, remodeled the home in the early 1900s. He added a wing on the south side of the building, as well as built a barn behind the building to house the horses needed to pull the hearse.
At the time, funeral homes offered additional services that we may not think of today, including invalid carriages and ambulance transport. McFarland became the first funeral home in Warren to switch from using horse-drawn carriages to motorized cars.
As a nod to local production, McFarland owned many Packard cars, including a Packard sedan and limousine. The limousine of the 1920s is depicted much differently than today, and includes three rows of seating, much like a modern-day SUV.
One of the more interesting aspects of the funeral business when the company first moved here, was the need for embalming bodies. McFarland was one of the first funeral homes in the country that made embalming a standard practice.
After the Civil War, many medical doctors were publishing different embalming techniques and had experimented with assorted chemicals through necessity during the war. In fact, when McFarland's son, also William McFarland, went to mortuary school, he graduated from the Cincinnati College of Embalming, and would have been quite adept with the practice.
A pamphlet detailing the history of the funeral home, published in the 1920s, begins with the quote "A Beautiful Residence Devoted to the Respectful Care of those Who are 'Just Away.'" It details the six display rooms within the facility and the importance of music within funeral parlors: "Nowhere does music have a more rightful place than in the funeral service. Its power to soothe the emotions, to give expression to the deepest feelings, makes it an indispensable part of the ceremony."
TCHS's collection today holds more than 300 items detailing the history of this long-standing business. The collection includes portraits and family photographs, photographs of the interior of the funeral home, as well as receipts and invoices from the early 1900s. To search the collection, visit the online database through TCHS's website www.trumbullcountyhistory.org. The database can be found under the "Collections & Research" tab.