Forgotten Abandoned Funeral Home With Everything Left Behind

We journey into the heart of rural South Carolina, where we uncover the haunting remnants of an abandoned funeral home steeped with an intriguing history. Once bustling with celebrations of life, this now forgotten place still holds a treasure trove of artifacts, including a fully stocked embalming room complete with gurneys, a casket display room featuring an array of caskets and burial vaults, and a quaint chapel that once hosted funeral wakes and heartfelt visitations.
In 1900, the National Negro Business League included some 500 male and female funeral directors. That number swelled to thousands by the 1950s and included the owner of this now abandoned funeral home. The enduring importance of a proper burial, whether the deceased was rich or poor, has enabled Black-owned funeral homes to persevere - from the industrial revolution all the way to the modern day.
Well that’s what set this funeral home far apart from anything else like it.
This funeral parlor became much more than a sanctuary for grieving families; it had also become a link to African American culture and many families utilized the services of the funeral home to celebrate lives for extended time periods after a loved ones passing.
The owner was well-known for his ability to fuse American funeral traditions with added components of historical African home-going celebrations. These funerals would almost certainly include a viewing of the deceased for ritualistic reasoning with a burial set to the sound of slow beating percussions, all followed by a large feast. The funeral homes long standing traditions dated back to when Africans were enslaved in 19th century America, as usually their plantation owners did permit them to gather for private funeral ceremonies. So funerals for any slaves had a festive tone because death was often perceived as true liberation, according to many local historians. And that was the exact mind set of this funeral home owner and was what initially had garnered his business so much attention and success.
His funeral home was first established in 1930 in rural South Carolina and continuously operated for more than ninety years. Since its inception until recent years, the funeral home had been owned and operated solely by an African American family. When the original owner died in the 1950s, one of his three sons took over and succeeded him in operating the family funeral business until his death in the 1990s.
After the son passed away and since the original family had all aged out of the funeral business, it was eventually sold to a neighboring mortician who continued operating the facility as part of his network of local funeral homes in the area. Today, he is one of the oldest black morticians in the state. As a result of the opening of a new funeral home in 2022, he decided to permanently close this outdated and crapped facility. Even though it has been several years since the last service was held, the place had the feel that it could reopen any day. We were shocked to find the casket display room, with caskets still set up along side burial vaults and urns. Then we found the chapel still in tact with rows of chairs still lined up for viewing purposes complete with a baby casket displayed at the front of the pulpit. And then we were in complete awe to discover the embalming room completely loaded with two stainless steel gurneys, a plethora of embalming instruments and tools, various makeup, and a vast assortment of embalming fluids, powders, and other products. One of the most interesting discoveries was just how old and outdated a lot of the funeral product was, like it’s been sitting on the shelves untouched for all these years. And finally, we found an old dusty broken down hearse inside the garage. So with everything that we uncovered in this amazing funeral home, this is another video that you’re not going to want to miss. And if you enjoy the video please drop us a comment, like the video, or even share the video. But most importantly subscribe to Abandoned Central on YouTube so that you all don’t miss any other videos. We appreciate all the support friends! Thank you. Until next time! A huge shout out to Leland at @abandonedsoutheast for the help on this one. Check his blog here: abandonedsoutheast.com/2024/12/02/memorial-funeral…