Established in 1914

A local group of prominent citizens felt Fresno needed a crematory. The closest one was in Oakland, California. So, they formed a private stock company to raise the funds necessary to build a crematory in Fresno.

The group approached Mr. Larry Moore of Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland. Mr. Moore was the inventor of the "Moore Crematory" which was of advanced design for the times. With Mr. Moore's help, and patterned after Chapel of The Chimes in Oakland, our crematory, with a chapel and columbarium, was constructed in 1914.

The people who approached Mr. Moore did not necessarily wish to run a crematory. They just wanted one in their community, so they convinced Mr. Moore to purchase an interest in their stock company and persuaded him to take over the project as his own.

Our present manager is Keith Hargrave, who has been manager for over 47 years. Mr. Moore asked Keith's father to leave Oakland and come to Fresno to oversee the project. While it was supposed to have been a temporary move, it ended up being a lifelong career. As mentioned, Keith took over from his father, so we have had only two managers in our history, which is very unique.