On September 14, we traveled to Marietta, Ohio and one of our stops was the Cawley and Peoples Mortuary Museum. Actually, this was the originally planned location stop for this trip, we just found other places to stop and do while we were there.
The museum is owned by Bill Peoples and is located in the old hearse garage for the Cawley & Peoples Mortuary located at 408 Front Street, Marietta, Ohio 45750 and you need to call ahead to arrange to see the museum. JoAnn (Marianne's sister) found this location and setup the tour.
Our tour was scheduled for 11 a.m., so after breakfast, and some running around town, we headed on over to the funeral home. We were not exactly sure where to go, but we ran into Chad in the parking lot and told him that we had a tour scheduled. After a quick call, he came back to us and said that he was going to show us the museum. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to meet and interview Bill Peoples himself, but Chad was quite delightful.
One of the first things that you encounter when you walk into the main area of the museum are references to the movie "Get Low" with Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, and Lucas Black. Well originally I was thinking, "Oh, a mortuary museum, that is a movie about a funeral..." Little did I know until that point, that the hearse that was used in the movie is actually owned by Bill Peoples and is in that museum. Ok, mind now blown.
Besides the "Get Low" car, there are 4 other vehicles within the museum, as well as, several different artifacts relating to to mortuary science. They also have a vast collection of Victorian Era hair collages and several different caskets that have some interesting styles.
Great place and collection, in fact I do remember one of my comments to Marianne while I was there was, "If I had a man cave, it would be something like this." Again, highly recommend this location if you get to the Marietta, Ohio area. Make sure you call ahead of time to setup your tour. Let us know in the comments below if you have been to location in the past or would like to travel there in the future. Also, check out some more pictures from this museum, it was fantastic!
