Phaneuf Funeral Homes and Crematorium has been serving the public since 1906 and is one of the oldest continually-owned family funeral homes in New Hampshire. We are the largest provider of funeral services in the state, and we operate three full service funeral homes, two crematories, two non-denominational chapels and a cremation society. Four Generations of Our Family Serving Your Family   Jean-Baptiste Phaneuf 1868-1944 Arthur O. Phaneuf 1905-1988 Lillian Vassar Phaneuf 1907-1969   John B. Phaneuf Arthur O. Phaneuf Michele M. Phaneuf-Plasz Please click on a year above for more information. 1906 - J.B. Phaneuf Opens the First Funeral Home in Nashua Jean-Baptiste Phaneuf, a Nashua native, but with family roots in St. Denis, Quebec opened the first Phaneuf Funeral Home on Whitney Street in 1906. The business would eventually move to Canal Street a few years later and would serve the French Canadian population of Nashua for the next 75 years. 1935 - Arthur Phaneuf Moves to Manchester After working with his father and brother part-time in the funeral business in Nashua for several years, Arthur Phaneuf decided that he wanted to become a funeral director. But the small size of the family business would not support three full time employees. So, in the summer of 1935, he moved his wife and three small children to Manchester. He leased a small building on Notre Dame Avenue across from the Notre Dame Hospital on Manchester's west side and opened for business under the name A.O. Phaneuf Funeral Home. Within a few years, his business had grown to a point that he outgrew the small building. He then purchased a building at 508 Dubuque Street on the corner of Kelley Street, where Phaneuf Funeral Home would operate for the next 18 years. 1955 - Coolidge Avenue Location Opens In early 1955, the Quirin mansion came up for sale on the corner of Coolidge Avenue and Bremer street. This Victorian style residence with its 18 rooms, turrett and large porch had stood as a west side landmark for decades. Arthur Phaneuf, realizing that the building would make a perfect funeral home, purchased it from the Quirin family. He then added an additional 2,000 square feet of space and the building was quickly converted to Manchester's largest funeral home. With a garage stall for six vehicles, an elevator and a selection room displaying over 30 caskets, this facility was state-of-the art for funeral homes back in the 1950s. Of the four floors, two were used for the funeral home and two were used by the family for their living quarters. That same year, his son, John, joined the firm and the name was changed to Phaneuf and Son Funeral Home. 1968 - John Phaneuf Purchases Letendre Funeral Service During the 1950s and 1960, Phaneuf Funeral Homes was conducting most of the funerals for Manchester's French Canadian population on the west side. But in order to grow, they needed a presence on the east side and downtown area of the city. Coincidentally, in 1968, Letendre Funeral Service, which was Manchester's largest funeral home at that time, had come up for sale. John Phaneuf, who was now running the day-to-day operations of the funeral home, purchased Letendre, which consisted of a funeral home on Hanover Street and one on Belmont Street and the funeral home's office on Manchester Street. For the next 25 years, the firm would be known as Phaneuf and Letendre Funeral Homes. 1975 - Hanover Street Location Opens During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Phaneuf and Letendre grew to assisting over 350 families a year. With the acquisition of Letendre Funeral Home a few years earlier, the firm not only handled services for much of the west side French Canadian population, but also Greek, Lebanese and Canadian residents living in the downtown area of the city. Yet serving that many people, the small Hanover Street location was just not large enough. So, plans were made to construct the first facility in Manchester building as a stand-alone funeral home. Finally, in the fall of 1975, the brand new, 10,000 square foot building on the corner of Hanover and Union Streets was opened. With its spacious viewing rooms, large lobby, ample parking and stylistic decor, this new facility provided Manchester families with a funeral home that could meet all of their needs. Indeed, today, this funeral homes is considered among the largest and finest in all of New England. 1989 - Funeral Home Management Passes to Fourth Generation In 1989, John Phaneuf who had ran the funeral home for three decades, semi-retired from the firm and handed management of the company to his son, Arthur "Buddy" Phaneuf. At that point, Buddy became the fourth generation Phaneuf to manage the firm. That same year, parking at the Hanover Street facility was expanded to over triple its original capacity. This year also saw Phaneuf become one of the first funeral homes in the state to be computerized. 1995 - Crematory and Chapel Opens After two years of litigation which ended in a lawsuit against the City of Manchester, Phaneuf Funeral Homes was granted the right to install the city's first crematorium at its 243 Hanover Street location. Since going on-line in March 1995, Phaneuf crematorium has conducted more cremations than any other funeral home in New Hampshire. Later that same year, Phaneuf became the first funeral home in the area to open up a nondenominational chapel. The chapel, which holds 70 people, is adorned with beautiful lead-coated stained glass imported from Europe. Today the chapel is used hundreds of times a year for funeral and memorial services. Another important event to happen during that memorable year was to change the name of the firm from Phaneuf and Letendre Funeral Homes to Phaneuf Funeral Homes and Crematorium, a name which was more reflective of the times. 2000 - Bedford Arrangement Center Opens & Phaneuf begins Monument Sales At the beginning of the new millennium, the firm took an innovative step and opened the Bedford Arrangement Center. This new concept in offering funeral and cremation services to residents of the Bedford and Amherst area, provides a complete retail and arrangements facility in a 2,000 square foot building. With increasing cremation rates and a reduction in long, multi-day calling hours, this facility offers the public a complete funeral merchandise center without the overhead and costs associated with a large, expensive funeral home. In that same year, the Phaneuf family added a monument store to its Hanover Street and Bedford facilities. In this way, the firm now truly provided all-inclusive convenience for all aspects of funeral service. Under one roof, families were able to arrange for any type of funeral or cremation service, purchase flowers, caskets and urns, order a monument, use an on-site chapel or crematory and arrange for a host of other services. 2002 - Bedford Chapel Opens for Business After two years of operation, the Bedford Arrangement Center added a full service, non-denominational chapel to its facilities. The chapel seats up to 60 people for small to medium size funeral services or memorial gatherings is the only facility of its kind in Bedford. With the rise in funerals being conducted in the funeral home across the country, this beautiful chapel will soon be comforting the families and friends of Bedford area residents who are in need of our caring services. 2004 - Hanover Street Expansion To meet the changing need of the consumer, many of whom are now opting for in-house services, the firm added a second chapel. The "Hanover" Chapel has seating for over 100 guests and incorporates state-of-the-art features including audio and video taping services, large screen monitor to use for displaying family photos and videos and a high end sound system. The room is appointed with hand made stained glass windows, custom made pews and offers a large gathering area of over 1500 square feet. In addition to the chapel, a private family viewing area for cremation-orientated families was added and over $100,000 was spent updating the crematorium to include close circuit television security system, and a family witnessed cremation area, making it the most up to date facility of its kind in the state. Finally, over 2000 square feet of merchandise area was either added or updated for selection of caskets, vaults, flowers, urns, monuments and other items offered to families in their time of need. 2008 – Boscawen Chapels Opens Early in 2007, Phaneuf Funeral Homes acquired Affordable Funeral and Cremation Services, a small limited services funeral home in Boscawen. During 2008, the firm expanded the Boscawen facility, adding parking for 40 vehicles and a 75 seat chapel, making this facility the newest and most state-of-the-art in the Concord area. The full multimedia chapel not only provides functionality for visitations and memorial services, but allows the firm to offer a variety of community service events and guest speakers. The chapel and parking enhancements were completed in October and kick-off with a November open house.