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The Richard Lamb Telegram, June 26, 2001
Some funeral homes are meeting their own demise and being reborn as more
profitable ventures.
Today's Chicago Tribune Business Section illustrates the trend with an
article in the Business section entitled 'Funeral industry in state of flux'.
The former Blake-Lamb Funeral Home at 1035 N. Dearborn in the heart of Chicago's
Gold Coast is the latest fatality. Built in 1958 and, until March, the only
funeral facility in the Near North area, the funeral home has met the wrecker's
ball to be replaced by an upscale condominium building.
As the article points out, part of the reason is the financial troubles of
the corporate owners, Service Corporation International, of Houston, Texas.
Forced by Wall Street to sell off properties to lower their multi-billion dollar
debt, public companies like SCI have been selling off excess cemetery land and
non-productive funeral homes. Further north in Chicago, SCI, the corporate
owners of Rosehill Cemetery, have been battling neighborhood and lot owner
opposition to their sale of excess property there.
So what do families do when there is no funeral home in the neighborhood?
Increasingly families are opting to have funeral visitations and memorial
services in churches, retirement homes, historic facilities, and parks.
Searching for more personalization and convenience, many families now are
skipping the funeral home altogether.
Richard Lamb Funeral Service and Resource Center is a new family-owned funeral firm built around these types of services, rather than a physical
location. The New TraditionsSM services recognize the desire of many families for a
simpler, cost-effective way of honoring traditions in a new setting. Richard Lamb Funeral Service has a Resource Center in the Western suburbs as
well as a new arrangement location on the Near North Side of Chicago. In addition,
our staff will come to your home or office to explain our services. Please
contact us by telephone at 1-888-511-LAMB or email
us with any questions you may have.
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