Dedicated service to our families

Though times have changed and our services have expanded, our commitment to compassionate care, attention to detail and creative funeral solutions has always remained strong.

The Hardage-Giddens Funeral Home in Jacksonville's Mandarin neighborhood welcomes you with a professional staff and a pledge to guide you through one of the more personal and challenging stages of life. We understand that losing a loved one is a difficult, emotional experience, and we are here for you.

Our San Jose Boulevard funeral home is a well-appointed, contemporary facility with plenty of space for gathering with friends and family, including a large reception area.

Cremation services in Jacksonville

We specialize in cremation services that honor loved ones in personalized ways, and families love our transparent pricing. With expertise in scattering ashes and a friendly team who pays attention to every detail, we provide service that is second to none.

More and more people are choosing cremation over traditional burial, but most aren’t familiar with the many options:

• a cremation without a funeral or memorial service of any kind.
• a funeral with your loved one present, followed by cremation.
• a cremation followed by a scattering, cemetery memorialization or celebration of life—or all three.

For those who wish for a more momentous memorial, Neptune Memorial Reef is an underwater cremation garden off the coast of Florida. A Celestis Memorial Spaceflight takes ashes into space for a little while or forever.

There are many options for cremation—and they're not all equal. Here's what you can expect when you choose us for your loved one's cremation:

• Custody of care guaranteed. Our custody-of-care program helps safeguard the identification of your loved one from the time we bring them into our care until the time we return them to your family. We check, cross-check and check again, every step of the way.
• Exclusive custody of your loved one. We use only crematories owned and operated by Dignity Memorial^® providers or trusted partners. Once your loved one is in our custody or that of a trusted partner, they’re in our care until they’re returned to your family.
• Licensed, certified, conscientious staff. All Dignity Memorial crematory operators are licensed and certified by Cremation Association of North America, or CANA. Only one person at a time is cremated, and the cremation chamber is thoroughly cleaned before the next person is cremated.

Read more about our cremation services.

Celebrations of life

Hardage-Giddens believes a funeral or memorial should be as unique as the person it honors. In fact, we design personalized services that beautifully capture the essence of you or your loved one.

First, we help you find inspiration. Maybe it's in a song or hobby. It could be a trademark style or a lifelong passion. Everyone has something that has informed their life. We turn that inspiration into a truly unique service filled with thoughtful and meaningful details.

You may want a traditional funeral service followed coffee and tea, or you may opt for direct cremation with a scattering in the Atlantic Ocean. Or perhaps the occasion calls for a no-holds-barred celebration, complete with live music, favorite foods, personal tributes and hand-selected mementos. Either way—or anywhere in between—you'll find there's no limit to the special memorial we can create.

From guitars to golf, bagpipes to cupcakes, bird-shaped urns to blue marble monuments, we take the things that mattered to someone and string them together to create a singular, heartfelt service.

Everything you expect and more

We are a member of the Dignity Memorial network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers. When you choose a Dignity Memorial provider, you get not only the warm, friendly service you expect from a locally operated funeral home, but also the value you deserve.

Please call Hardage-Giddens Funeral Home for immediate assistance planning a funeral or if you would like more information about our services.  

History

The history and tradition of Hardage-Giddens Funeral Homes begins over 90 years ago and has touched thousands and thousands of Florida lives.

The Hardage side of things

In 1929, Hugh Hardage Sr. and Ralph Williams opened a mortuary at 517 Park Street in the Riverside area of Jacksonville. They called it Hardage and Williams Funeral Home. The company became Hardage and Sons when Ralph retired in 1944, and 4 of Hugh’s sons (Hugh Jr., Robert, Gordon and Richard) became partners in the family business. Hugh Sr. died in 1964, and his sons continued operations, even expanding by acquiring Estes-Krauss Funeral Home in 1971.

Giddens gets its start

Meanwhile in 1932, elsewhere in Jacksonville, T.J. Giddens and J.D. McEwen opened Giddens Funeral Home, at 85 Riverside Avenue. T.J. operated the firm; J.D. was a silent partner and then sold his interest to T.J. just three years later. In 1941, T.J. moved the original funeral home to 116 Riverside Avenue.

Ronald Giddens joined his father as a partner in the funeral home in 1947. His first funeral home was on South 3rd Street in Jacksonville Beach. It now operates as Beaches Chapel by Hardage-Giddens on Beach Boulevard.

In 1960, William Griffith became a partner until his retirement in 1972. In 1970, Ronald opened Edgewood Chapel in the city's Murray Hill neighborhood.

Hardage + Giddens in Duval and Clay counties

The firms of Hardage and Sons and Giddens-Griffith merged in 1972, though they operated separately under their respective names. Each continue to expand throughout the city of Jacksonville. In the mid-1980s, the names merged.

Now all of the funeral homes fall under the Hardage-Giddens Funeral Homes umbrella, and all are members of the Dignity Memorial family of funeral, burial, cremation and cemetery service providers.

Ronald, along with his daughter, Robin Giddens Sheppard, remain active in the business, upholding a legacy of excellence and integrity in the community, along with a staff of nearly 200 employees at 11 funeral homes and five cemeteries in Florida's Duval and Clay counties.