South of Union Square logo
South of Union Square
Place
40 West 116 Street

Posts & Stories(1)

The Business of Death image

The Business of Death
Story

Whereas once when a person died, the family prepared the body at home, mourners visited at home, and one's community provided the labor for burial, new technology developed during and as a result of the Civil War—embalming— allowed funeral business to thrive. In the decades after the Civil War in New York City, carpenters became coffin makers and then undertakers, religious societies took on funerary responsibilities and liverymen who once only moved the deceased to outer borough rural cemeteries took on more mortuary duties. By the early 20th century, storefront undertakers served neighborhoods all over the city, catering to different ethnic enclaves and social-economic groups. They provided all-encompassing services: acting as notaries, securing wake, funeral and burial venues, and furnishing transportation. In 1917 commercial photographer William Hassler was hired by Sunnyside Magazine, a long-running undertaker trade journal to document some of New York's grimmest businesses. (It should be noted that The Sunnyside was not the only such publication, though it was the most pleasantly named; others included The Casket and The Weekly Shroud.) The resulting illustrated article was entitled "Grewsome Undertaker Establishments."

Photos(6)

 27 West 115th Street image

27 West 115th Street

Well at the east wall of 27 W. 115th Street, on the north side between Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue, New York City, December 27, 1897.
 27 West 115th Street image

27 West 115th Street

Well at the east wall of 27 W. 115th Street, on the north side between Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue, New York City, October 26, 1897.
 27 West 115th Street image

27 West 115th Street

Unidentified boy by the well at 27 W. 115th Street, on the north side between Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue, New York City, October 26, 1897.
30 West 116th Street image

30 West 116th Street

Winter & Reich, Hungarian undertaker, 30 W. 116th Street, New York City, November 19, 1914. Photographed for Sunnyside Magazine.
67 West 115th Street image

67 West 115th Street

67 W. 115th Street, New York City, undated (ca. October 1916). Photographed for Joseph P. Day.
Public School 184 image

Public School 184

Manhattan: 116th Street (West) - 3rd Street 31 West 116th Street, northside between west 116th and 117th Streets, showing P.S. 184. Board of Education, N.Y.C. 1NE .PERATV12- 1920.
Privacy PolicyTerms of Service