Petersburg, Virginia is steeped in history and tradition, much like J.T. Morriss & Son Funeral Home & Cremation Service. What started as a furniture store on Bollingbrook Street back in 1856 has grown into one of the oldest funeral homes in the country.
To mark this milestone in our history we have planned several events throughout the course of the year.
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 To commemorate their 150th anniversary, J.T. Morriss &
Son Funeral Home & Cremation Service will mount a unique
traveling exhibition that explores how burial and mourning
customs have evolved over the last 150 years. Local
artifacts from public and private collections around the
Tri-Cities will be brought together for the first time for
viewers to learn  how
traditions that are now
commonplace first
came to be and how
other traditions faded
out of practice.
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• The tradition of holding a pre-burial wake began as a simple precautionary measure. As it was not uncommon to accidentally bury people while still alive, a family member would sit with the deceased for a few days to make sure he didn’t “wake” before his internment.
• Virginia was the first state to pass embalming laws in
1894 following the Sanitation Movement.
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Seige Museum • Petersburg
June 9 through August 18, 2006
Weston Manor Plantation • Hopewell
August 25 through October 13, 2006
Chesterfield Co. Museum • Chester
October 20 through December 1, 2006
Back To Anniversary Events
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