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“This is one of my dreams come true for our business, is to have a new facility,” said Pam Parramore, managing partner of the funeral home. “It makes it easier for people to get to our location, the convenience of the restaurants, the motels and hotels.
“A lot of family members are out of town, so this makes it easier for people when they’re coming into town.”
The new funeral home incorporates state-of-the-art cameras that both record and live stream services, either on the funeral home’s website or via a private link, enabling friends and family from other states to view the service as it takes place.
Cameras can be aimed in the opposite direction to show people coming for the visitation before capturing the service itself.
Large flatscreen televisions allow guests to view services from various vantage points during the service or from another room, or watch a slideshow of photos prior to the service.
“If we have a large funeral … they can pretty much be in any room in here and see and hear the service,” Parramore said.
That include a reception area that can accommodate catering and meetings and includes two televisions.
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Baker-Stevens-Parramore guests may view the visitation or service from a corridor through two large glass windows while listening via speakers.
Adding to the funeral home’s overall atmosphere are a tall stone fireplace, a fish tank and instrumental music piped in over the funeral home’s sound system.
“We wanted to make this comfortable and peaceful and hopefully we accomplished that,” Parramore said.
The business got its start on Central Avenue in 1923 and moved to Manchester Avenue in 1926. That location will remain open, she said.
Constructing the new funeral home took Baker-Stevens-Parramore about one year — nine months to complete the building and three months to get it up and running, Parramore said. She declined to provide the total cost of the project, but said it would not affect the cost of services at either funeral home location.
The public may tour the new Baker-Stevens-Parramore Funeral Home during an open house scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. April 2. For more information, call 513-422-5404.
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