Skip to Main Content

The glass coffin. In the background, a casket for three.
The glass coffin. In the background, a casket for three.

National Museum of Funeral History

Field review by the editors.

Houston, Texas

It's easy to imagine a National Museum of Funeral History in some eerie Victorian mansion -- an old funeral home in New England, perhaps -- with dead leaves blowing across the lawn and ominous, creaky front steps.

Abe Lincoln viewing.
Abe Lincoln viewing.

Instead, the museum is in a blocky warehouse of a building in what looks like a former industrial park, baking in the bright South Texas sun. Surrounding it are acres of sprawling town homes, with young families unloading groceries from minivans and kids shooting hoops in their driveways. We can only guess what these people think of their odd neighbor with the words "Funeral" and "Museum" in big letters on its side.

The museum, opened in 1992 by visionary undertaker Robert L. Waltrip, has a large parking lot, but when we arrived we were its only visitors. It is quiet as a tomb inside, which, given the displays, is appropriate. The utilitarian building has the ambience of an aircraft hanger, but you won't notice it -- such is the scope and wonder of its collection.

A good example of the grandeur of the museum is its Deaths of the Popes gallery, which opened in 2008 and features not only John Paul II's bulletproof Popemobile, but also an exact reproduction of his triple-nested coffin. The museum had to build an addition just to accommodate all the displays. Life-size dioramas, for example, recreate the Pope lying in his coffin in the Vatican and John Paul II's burial crypt beneath St. Peter's Basilica.

Drain the fluids! A classic glass preparation table and requisite bucket.
Drain the fluids! A classic glass preparation table and requisite bucket.

One-of-a-kind coffins are everywhere in the main exhibit hall, including one embedded with hundreds of dollars of U.S. coins and currency. Little signs constantly remind the curious, "Do not open." That warning is probably unnecessary atop the "ventilating coffin" (for putrid corpses), and no one needs to lift the lid of Snow White's clear glass casket, or the coffin made of the same greenish glass used in old Coke bottles. The "casket for three" has been thoughtfully propped open; it was made in the 1930s for a married couple in Durango, Colorado, who intended to kill themselves after their baby died. They didn't, and the coffin ended up here.

Japanese hearse.
Japanese hearse.

The gaudiest human cargo containers in the museum are its custom-designed Ghanaian coffins -- the largest collection of them outside of Africa. Similarly spunky is the Day of the Dead exhibit, featuring a full-size Mexican home filled with colorful decorations and altars, while outside the front door stands someone dressed in a skeleton suit.

Hearses -- there are dozens of them -- have all been restored to corpse-carrying order. A gaudy Japanese model (a custom 1972 Toyota Crown station wagon) catches the eye, as does a fanciful hearse for babies, a 19th century casket sleigh, and the official state funeral hearses of Presidents Ford and Reagan.

Pope funeral scene.
Pope funeral scene.

Best of all is the huge 1916 Packard graveyard bus, created to eliminate funeral processions. It could carry a coffin, pallbearers, and 20 mourners. It was climbing a San Francisco hill when the weight of all those bodies in the back caused it to tip over, sending people (and a coffin) tumbling onto the street. Quickly retired, it spent the next 40 years as the home of a California ranch hand before the museum restored it and put it on display.

Victorian funeral parlor.
Victorian funeral parlor.

The timeline of the History of Embalming exhibit extends from a full-size replica of King Tut's gaudy sarcophagus to a vintage 1920s electric embalming machine, which looks like a canister vacuum. Next to it is a life-size recreation of the embalming tent of Dr. Thomas Holmes, "father of U.S. embalming," who followed Civil War armies so that he could embalm dead soldiers on the battlefield and ship them home.

There is much, much more to see. The Thanks for the Memories gallery features funeral memorabilia from celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Jackie Kennedy, as well as the original marble slab from Marilyn Monroe's tomb (A sign explains that constant "touching and kissing" wore it out and compelled its replacement).

Another gallery focuses exclusively on presidential mortality, showcasing the original Eternal Flame that burned at JFK's Arlington grave until 1998. A wax Lincoln lies in a duplicate of his coffin, "one of only two in existence today;" nearby is an exact replica of the gun that killed him. In another case is George Washington's funeral bill. There are replicas of the caskets of JFK, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and the actual embalming machine used on Harry Truman. The official Presidential funeral conveyance, a 2011 Cadillac Masterpiece Hearse. carried Reagan in 2004 and Ford in 2006.

Not all "national" museums live up to that standard, but the National Museum of Funeral History will wow anyone interested in its admittedly specialized field. Also to be commended is its gift shop, which has a surprisingly good time selling death with items such as "In Dog Years I'm Dead" t-shirts, salt and pepper shaker skulls, and a sippy cup shaped like a tombstone.

Also see: Souvenirs: Funeral Museum

National Museum of Funeral History

Address:
415 Barren Springs Drive, Houston, TX
Directions:
North of Houston on I-45. By the airport take exit 63. Turn west onto Airtex. Drive a quarter-mile to its end. Turn right onto Ella Blvd. Drive two blocks. Turn right onto Barren Springs Drive. The museum is the first building on the right.
Hours:
M-F 10-4, Sa 10-5, Su 12-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
281-876-3063
Admission:
Adults $15.
RA Rates:
The Best
Save to My Sights

Nearby Offbeat Places

Lucky Land: Terra-Cotta ArmyLucky Land: Terra-Cotta Army, Houston, TX - 8 mi.
Giant Hammer Crushes CarGiant Hammer Crushes Car, Houston, TX - 7 mi.
Carriage House CafeCarriage House Cafe, Houston, TX - 7 mi.
In the region:
Cows Jump, Richmond, TX - 32 mi.

More Quirky Attractions in Texas

Stories, reports and tips on tourist attractions and odd sights in Texas.

Explore Thousands of Unique Roadside Landmarks!

Strange and amusing destinations in the US and Canada are our specialty. Start here.
Use RoadsideAmerica.com's Attraction Maps to plan your next road trip.

My Sights

My Sights on Roadside America

Map and Plan Your Own Roadside Adventure ...Try My Sights

Mobile Apps

Roadside America app: iPhone, iPad Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. On-route maps, 1,000s of photos, special research targets! ...More

Roadside Presidents app: iPhone, iPad Roadside Presidents app for iPhone, iPad. POTUS landmarks, oddities. ...More

Texas Latest Tips and Stories

Latest Visitor Tips

Sight of the Week

Sight of the Week

JFK's World Famous Twine Ball, Highland, Wisconsin (Mar 18-24, 2024)

SotW Archive

USA and Canada Tips and Stories

More Sightings