Charles M. Frame Funeral Home

Charles M. Frame had grown up in Evans City, Butler County, Pennsylvania. While still in high school he worked for the local feed store and the local funeral home. After spending four years fighting for our freedom in the U.S. Navy during World War Two, was still dedicated to the funeral service profession. After the war Mr. Frame used the money from his G.I. Bill to attend the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science. In nineteen-fifty-three he and his wife, Eleanore Hager Frame, formerly of Mars, Pennsylvania, and their two son, Charles L. and Dennis A., moved to Eldred where a daughter, Crystal M. Frame was born in nineteen fifty-nine. In Eldred Mr. Frame purchased a very rundown building known as the Chrisman House. The house was built in Eighteen-Forty by the then prominent Dr. William L. Chrisman. Mr. Chrisman practiced medicine in Eldred until nineteen-seventeen when he passed away. His daughter, Mary, resided in the homestead until she passed away in nineteen-forty. The Chrisman house was written up in the Smithsonian Institute as one of the seven showplaces in Mckean County. After extensive landscaping and interior remodeling by Charles, the first home for funerals was opened in Eldred in nineteen-fifty three.

Prior to this the other undertaker in Eldred was E.I. Marsh who owned a furniture store on Main Street. He sold caskets out of the backroom. When called upon for his undertaking services, he would bring the deceased to the backroom of the furniture store where he would embalm, dress and prepare the body for viewing. They would then be reposed in one of the three caskets that he offered. Mr. Marsh would then take the casketed deceased to the deceased’s family home. The casket would then be set up in the front parlor, with drapes and lights that Mr. Marsh brought along.

Chuck Frame tried quite extensively to negotiate a partnership with E.I. where with Chuck’s money from the G.I. Bill and a loan from his father in law, L. A. Hager also of Mars, they would remodel the furniture store to become a home for funerals. However, Mr. Marsh liked the idea of using Mr. Frame’s money; he would not put it in writing that he was a partner. That’s when Chuck decided to purchase the Chrisman home and convert it.

Chuck Frames’ new funeral home was actually a home for funerals, where viewing and funeral services actually took place in the funeral home. The people of Eldred where happy to have a modern home for funerals and business was so good in the first three years that in nineteen-fifty-six an addition was added that doubled the size of the funeral home and added a modern garage. Later a facelift of sandstone was added on the outside to cover up the one hundred-ten year wood old exterior. At this time a paved parking area was also added.

Charles M. Frame died on May 2nd, nineteen seventy-seven after a struggle with cancer, he was fifty-four years old. In his twenty-four years as Eldred’s funeral director he built a beautiful funeral home and provided professional services that the people of Eldred could be proud of. His son, Dennis A. Frame, then purchased the business from his mother in nineteen eighty. In two thousand-seven, Dennis remodeled the funeral entrance and added an entry foyer with vaulted ceilings, solid oak woodwork and a portico that extended over the front driveway to facilitate embarking and disembarking in foul weather. Devin H. Frame, the third generation, has now joined the staff having recently graduated from the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science.

The funeral home has all the most modern updates including: P.A. system with wireless microphones, ability to play any format of music, ceiling speakers in every room, a projector for viewing of pictorial memories of the deceased, television play area for the children, audio recording equipment for funeral services, and extensive off street parking and a full selection room with actual caskets.