Earl Mitchum entered the picture sometime in the ’60s and Wilson Doffney arrived in ’84.
The moniker had nothing to do with race, but a nod to owners George Black and wife Florence White. Unlike a lot of funeral parlors that began as storefronts, Mitchum-Wilson was founded at its present Point Breeze spot in ’26 as Black and White Funeral Home. Two years later, Gangemi moved to its present location.
and relocated to its current Broad Street location. changed its name to the Pennsylvania Burial Co. The shift to funeral parlors came after World War II. "It wasn’t unheard of for families to take out a door or window," Gangemi said, adding viewings took place in the deceased’s living rooms. Getting a casket through a rowhome door was a bit tricky, though. When a call came in, Gangemi would transport his equipment to the home of the deceased to embalm and prepare the body there - the process utilizing hand pumps, not the electrical equipment of today, Gangemi said, adding bodily fluids and the like would simply be washed down a bathroom sink or tub - clearly the days before stricter health codes. established Gangemi Funeral Home in ’37 out of a storefront at Ninth and Mountain streets, where he essentially had a desk and a phone, his son said. in a storefront on Hall Street off Ninth Street in the Italian Market. That year, Jacovini’s great-grandfather, Pietro, founded the Italian Burial Casket Co. Broad, is fourth generation and believes his funeral parlor could be the oldest in South Philly, having opened in 1921. Peter Jacovini, supervisor and funeral director of the Pennsylvania Burial Co., 1327 S. Second- and third-generation proprietors are quite common here, along with most of the businesses having begun as storefronts, because in the early days directors made house calls.
Other parlors like Shea Funeral Home, 29 Dickinson St., and Pelzer Funeral Home, 845 S. 20th St., said.Ĭontrary to what many may think, African-American funeral parlors don’t deal exclusively in black clients, Doffney said, adding, "We service all ethnic groups, all races." Wilson Doffney, owner/funeral director of Mitchum-Wilson Funeral Home, 1410 S. West of Broad there are a handful of African-American-owned establishments, which are owned and/or operated mostly by women though male proprietors are the norm in this business, Charlene E. Many of the parlors on South Broad are two or more rowhomes converted into one like Gangemi’s. That’s the main reason we moved to Broad Street, the buildings are longer, 80-, 85-feet inside," he said. One reason some think South Broad is home to so many is because the rowhome interiors are deeper than in other parts of the city and funeral parlors require space, Vincent Gangemi Jr. Mannal Funeral Home in the Frankford section. They are all staying in business, there are no start-ups," Janice Mannal, secretary of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, past chairwoman of the Pennsylvania State Board of Funeral Directors and past president and current member of Philadelphia Funeral Directors Association, said. "It could have something to do with the population density down there. Broad, are just a small sampling of the bustling scene.ĭespite having one practically on every corner that may bolster the belief South Philly has more than its share of funeral homes, none of the owners/directors here nor the National Funeral Directors Association nor its Pennsylvania chapter could dig up a reason as to why there are so many. Broad, and Carto Funeral Home, 2212-14 S. There is a good chance it will be a funeral parlor.Īccording to the National Funeral Directors Association, there are 20,915 funeral homes in the United States, and more than two dozen of them are in South Philly, including about a dozen on South Broad.
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