A modern funeral home

Our handsome brick funeral home on Fennell Avenue East has a warm and friendly atmosphere, a large chapel with flexible seating and multiple visitation rooms. Our on-site reception centre, complete with catering, is a lovely spot for a gathering before or after a funeral or memorial. Up-to-date technical capabilities allow us to provide a modern, multimedia funeral experience, if that's what you desire. Facilities are fully accessible to the disabled, and we have plenty of on-site parking. In fact, it is our goal to meet every wish.

Personalized funeral and memorial services

The experienced staff at Cresmount Funeral Home – Fennell Chapel offers compassionate care and dignified service that exceeds expectations. We know losing a loved one is hard, and we're here to guide you through planning a funeral or memorial every step of the way. We offer everything from a cremation with a traditional church funeral and cemetery services to a modern celebration of life with live music and a send-off that captures the personality of yourself or your loved one. From finding her favourite flowers to ordering fishing lures as mementos for his memorial, we handle every detail. The celebration of a lifetime begins here. But our caring service does not end after the funeral. We provide a 24-hour Compassion Helpline® for our customers as long as it's needed. Please contact us if you need help right away or want additional information about our funeral or cremation services.

Cremation services

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.

History

In 1954, Hamilton funeral director Murray Cooke saw a need for a funeral home on Hamilton Mountain. That's when he opened Cresmount Funeral Home along with an ambulance service. In 1974, Murray retired and sold his funeral home to William Markey. In 1976, a large chapel was added to the funeral home. When William died in 1978, his wife Mary and son Chris kept the funeral home going. Mary and Chris renovated in 1988, and we opened the Cresmount Family Centre in 1994 to hold post-funeral receptions.

Cresmount Funeral Home grows

In 1997, Cresmount expanded to a second location, Cresmount Funeral Home – Upper James Chapel, on Upper James Street. A man named Judge Loblaw built the building that housed the Upper James Chapel when Upper James Street was still a mud road. During the 1950s, W.A. Thorpe, a man from Brantford, purchased the property and operated it as Thorpe Brothers Funeral Home. W.A.'s brother, Ernie, was its funeral director. The brothers sold the building in the early 1980s to Royal Trust Estate. A few years later, an economic downturn forced Royal Trust to close the building, and it was boarded up for 2 years.

A funeral home revival

Ted Powell, who was involved with the construction business, and funeral director Wes Key bought the building. They added a chapel and atrium and converted the garage to a visitation room. They held the business from 1985 until 1987, when Dodsworth and Brown Funeral Home bought the building, changed the business name to Mount Hamilton Chapel of Dodsworth and Brown, and ran it as such until 1991. At that time, Ted and Wes bought it back and changed the name again, to Swackhamer, Truscott-Brown and Dwyer.In 1997, Swackhamer, Truscott-Brown and Dwyer became Cresmount Funeral Home – Upper James Chapel and the Cresmount Family Centre was moved there.

By 2016, it became clear that Upper James Street was no longer the right environment for a funeral home. The decision was made to close this location and partner with its sister firm, Cresmount Funeral Home - Fennell Chapel. Renovations began again at Cresmount Funeral Home - Fennell Chapel to include a beautiful 2nd-floor reception facility. As a member of the Dignity Memorial® network of providers, we offer you a personalized, local experience and the strength and stability of a well-established, North-American organization.