Did you know?
Christine Whelan, FEO March 3, 2022, VOL. 3 ISSUE 14
After spending half of my childhood years in Ridgeway, growing up there, then moving away to live life, I returned decades later, as many of us do. In returning, I have frequented the Ridgeway Downtown Dollar and Discount Store at 336 Ridge Rd. N., often leaving with a bagful of odd household needs and office supplies.
I have also found myself going in just to chat with Isabel, who manages the store for her mom and store owner, Vivianne Cooney.
It took me a few visits and a level of comfort to ask Isabel, or Izzy, the question that was burning on my brain. In growing up around downtown Ridgeway in the 80s, I remember what the building used to be. And now that there’s a following generation and many new residents, I wondered, did Izzy and Vivianne tell their customers who come in, that their quaint, country-style dollar and discount store was once a popular funeral home?
The answer was, yes. Izzy and Vivianne are quite open about it and welcome any conversation about it. And so, I went further. Could I write a story about the history? “Absolutely, and here’s my mom’s contact info.”
Vivianne, then directed me first, to the local historians, who finally sent me to Sharon Dell.
And Sharon introduced me to the story of Harry Byron Dell, founder of the Dell Funeral Home. “Harry was my husband’s grandpa. He first got here in 1909,” making him one of the pioneers contributing to the development of the town of Ridgeway.
Sharon took us back. “Harry was born in 1879 in Pelham. After receiving his diploma in Embalming at Buffalo, and working for two years at Toronto Funeral Home, he moved to Ridgeway to set up his own business.
“With $50, he rented a storefront on Ridge Road and he stocked the store with furniture and caskets as in those days, undertakers also sold home furniture.” Sharon explained this seemingly odd pairing. Funeral homes may not have had a funeral for several months and wood caskets went with wood furniture, manufacturing-wise, so it made sense to choose to sell furniture as a secondary income.
“It took six months to receive his first deceased. It was a US summer resident.” Dell explained, at the time, there was also an established undertaker in town.
“But after this, his business began to grow. He had to seek larger buildings to accommodate his expanded furniture inventory, which included train carloads of hay mattresses for summer cottagers. He was selling furniture to the growing community of summer cottagers in Crystal Beach.”
So, I guess you could say, Harry Dell, catered both to the newly deceased and the newly growing community of the living.
“Prior to 1930, viewings were in people’s homes. The undertaker would pick up the body in his horse-drawn hearse, arrange for the paperwork, embalm the body and deliver the body back in one of his caskets to the family home, then he would arrange for the cemetery burial.”
Between 1909-1931, “Harry moved several times. As his business grew, he outgrew the store and he moved to another store, then he built a 2-storey block building which was both furniture and undertaker. He then ended up in Dell’s Store, which is now Brodies Drugstore.”
Harry had two sons, Ken and Joe. “My husband, Garvin is the son of Ken.”
“After their father died in 1944, one son began running the funeral home and one son ran the store. Dell’s was our store. Until 1989, our whole family ran the store.”
The Rise Of Funeral Homes
Sharon explained the shift in service. “In 1931, with changing funeral practices, there became a need for a funeral home with facilities to accommodate families. So, Harry bought a house on the east side of Ridge Road, which today is the Ridgeway Downtown Dollar and Discount Store.
“He expanded on the front of the existing house, constructing a two-storey brick building. The back part of the building that now stands, is the original house that was built onto in 1931.
“The existing house became the casket viewing room and embalming room. The funeral service rooms in front were finished in elegant gumwood, with an entire wall of stained glass that was lit from behind. They had an electric organ which was played by Harry’s sister, Luella Dell-Box.
“There was an apartment on the second floor, which was a rental unit for hired men and their families over the years.”
“There were three funeral cars and a 1924 hearse. They were stored in a barn behind the Dell family homes on Hershey Street.”
Stories
I asked Sharon, who is also President of the Bertie Historical Society if she had any stories connected to the funeral business over the years. She had a few.
“I’ve done my own research. I’ve been in the archives, death records for Bertie Township and I know there were different people, local, who died in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic. I asked one time at our Historical Society meeting and some members had family stories,”
Written by the Dell family, Sharon recited for this story, “They went to Fort Erie with horse and sleigh to pick up a body. In the winter, three men had to walk on either side of the horse-drawn hearse to prevent it from tipping over in the deep snow.”
She shared that there were a lot of drownings at Crystal Beach back then. “I photocopied the funeral home records at the museum when I volunteered there. The Dell records are there and Larry Williams, the founder of Williams Funeral Home, loaned us his records so we could photocopy them. In going through them, I saw many drownings recorded.”
Sharon recalled stories of when her husband worked at the home. “Garvin worked there, from 1952 to ’56. He was just out of high school. He did all sorts of things while working for his uncle, who was at that time running the home, such as driving the hearse.
“In the middle of the night, his Uncle Joe would say, ‘We just got a phone call. We’ve got to pick up a body.’ Even if it was in the middle of winter, they’d have to go get the hearse, hope it started, go pick up the body and bring it back.”
Sharon described the specific attire that was worn during business hours. “There was a certain way they had to dress for funerals. They would wear silk top hats, stats, swallow-tail coats, silk black ties, black shoes, striped pants. Sons wore derby hats and black suits. There’s one photo of Ken when he was helping his father in the funeral business. He was dressed in funeral attire, with his big, black, silk top hat.
Talking about the old 1924 hearse, “Sometimes there was a concern whether it would start. It was so old. When they had to drive it up the hill, on Gorham Road, to the cemetery they were concerned sometimes that it wouldn’t make it up the hill.”
In 1956, the funeral home building was sold to Brian Harris. He owned the building from 1956 to 1961.
Frank Clendening owned it from 1961 to 1978. During this time, the name of the home was changed to Clendening Funeral Home.
Larry Williams bought the building in 1978, changing it to Williams Funeral Home until 1987.
“After that, Williams built his building down Ridge Road, at the corner of Nigh Road and Eddy Fiertag purchased the building. On the main floor, he made a rental unit storefront.” To this day, Fiertag owns the building.
Vivianne and Izzy bring us to the end of this journey. They have woken the building up with smiles and colour. In the warmer months, there are always displays of balloons for parties and noodles for swimming out front, at the top of the stairs. Walking in the doors, more colour. And at the end of the long aisle, there is always one of the two ladies, smiling as they welcome you in.
Vivianne shared, “I bought the store itself from Melody Simons on June 1st, 2007. Melody first opened it in the mid-90s.”
She has been enjoying every chance to bring happiness and colour to the building and to the downtown area. “I dress up for everything. When we were handing out candy for the kids for Halloween, I dressed up. At Christmas time, I have a Santa dress. On St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll be in green.” The inside will always resemble the time of year with decorations and fun for sale.
When talking about any remnants of the funeral home that once was, Vivianne replied, “The stained glass is no longer there but the sconce lights are still there, in the corners and on the walls. That’s what’s left of the funeral home. They stay on all the time.”
If you didn’t know before, now you do. Take a peek around the back of the Ridgeway Downtown Dollar and Discount Store the next time you’re in the area.
336 Ridge Road knows the funeral business no more. Once providing a vital and needed service to the community, has now passed it on to the home at the corner of Nigh, trading up, I imagine with no grudge, to be donned in an array of balloons.
Photo; Clendening Funeral Home – side view with sign (Paul Kassey)
