By Mark | December 18, 2019
The Starkweather Chapel in Ypsilanti’s Highland Cemetery, for those of you who may not have noticed, has been undergoing some much needed renovation work this past year. Here, with more on the history of the building, and the preservation work that’s been done thus far, is a conversation I just had with lifelong Ypsilanti resident […]
Posted in History, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 1841, 1883, Ainsworth Mill, animal infestation, Barry LaRue, Battle of Bunker Hill, Beezy's, big death, Bill French, coffins, Daniel Quirk, DTE, Ebay, Elijah McCoy, EMU, George McCoy, grave digging, Greek Revival, Highland Cemetery, Historic District Commission, historic places, historic preservation, Historic Preservation Office, home funerals, Huron River, J.E. Moore’s Furniture Store, Jasper Pennington, John D. Pierce, John Starkweather, Mack & Mack Furniture Store, Mary Ann Starkweather, Mason & Rice, memorial services, Normal College, Old Ypsilanti, oral history, plaster, Playboy, pornography, Prospect Cemetery, Prospect park, public art, public education, renovations, solar power, SPARK East, stained glass, Starkweather Chapel, Starkweather Hall, Starkweather House, State Historic Preservation Office, Stevens T. Mason, the funeral industry, underground railroad, Walter Loomis Newberry, water fountains, winter receiving vault, Ypsi history, Ypsi Solar, Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Public Library |
I guess it makes sense to combine the two professions. If you’ve got the wood and tools to make coffins, why not build a couple of cabinets when business is slow, right? I mean, there’s a lot of time between cyclone season and flu season in Ypsilanti. Might as well do something constructive. And, when […]
By Mark | November 24, 2013
Continuing our recent conversation on DIY funerals, I wanted to pass along a link to this new report by Boston’s NPR affiliate WBUR on the growing sentiment in the United States that families can better care for their deceased loved ones than the mortuary industry. Here’s a short clip from the report, followed by video […]
Posted in Health, Other, Uncategorized | Also tagged big death, death care, Erika Nelson, Final Rights: Reclaiming the American Way of Death, funeral homes, home funerals, Jessica Mitford, Joshua Slocum, Murro Van Meter, on facing death, Sophia Fox, The American Way of Death, the funeral industry |
By Mark | August 21, 2013
As it’s been a while since we’ve discussed America’s rapidly consolidating and progressively evil funeral industry, I thought that I’d share this comment, which was left a few days ago on Reddit, in a thread about industry secrets, by an unnamed individual claiming to be a funeral director. [I’ve added several links, but otherwise the […]
Posted in Other, Uncategorized | Also tagged A Family Undertaking, All Saints, anus, big death, biohazard, casket, chemicals, coined phrases, coining new words and phrases, Corporate Crime, cremation, cremation societies, Death, deathcare, Dignity Memorials, embalming fluid, Erika Nelson, eye caps, FTC Funeral Rule, Funeral Consumers Alliance, funeral homes, funeral supplies, Generations Funeral Service, green burial, Josh Slocum, leakage, monopoly, Muehlig Funeral Home, napping in caskets, natural burial, pollution, purge, pyramid schemes, sales, SCI, Secrets, Service Corporation International, STEI, Stewart Enterprises, toxic waste, trocar, vagina, water quality |
By Mark | February 1, 2012
Earlier this winter, on one of our small Occupy Ypsi marches around the city, I met a woman by the name of Erika. She’d apparently been living here in Ypsi for a few years, but, somehow, our paths had never crossed, even though we had several friends in common. Well, over the course of the […]
Posted in History, Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Also tagged AATA, Ann Arbor, armed robbery, bond debt, charter mandate, crime, death care, Eastern Michigan University, Erika Nelson, Ferndale, gun violence, Headlee, home buying, home funerals, home invasions, hospice, income tax, interviews, Lansing, local income tax, Mayor Schreiber, midwifery, millage, Oakwood, Obama, Paul Schreiber, Pittsfield Township, property taxes, Proposition A, Royal Oak, sense of place, the funeral industry, the future of Ypsilanti, Water Street, Water Street debt reduction millage, Ypsi immigration interview, Ypsilanti police department |
