New Home for an Old Window

The Pink Palace’s newest acquisition is a stained glass window from T.H. Hayes & Sons Funeral Home, Memphis’s oldest continually operated African American business.  Thomas H. Hayes, Sr. began his career as a grocer before he founded the funeral parlor in 1902. It was originally located on Poplar Avenue, but it moved to 680 South Lauderdale in 1918. The family lived on the second floor of the building. The funeral parlor closed after the death of Frances Hayes, the daughter-in-law of Thomas, Sr., in 2010.

The emergence of funeral homes in the early twentieth century was one of the most significant advancements in the modern funeral industry. This development made the business more efficient because it took the mostly decentralized and multistage funeral process and turned it into a uniform experience in one building. Funeral homes themselves also put “a positive face on funeral directing.” Funeral directing offered African…