A name change after 150 years of service (2 photos)

The Arthur Funeral Home & Cremation Centre at 492 Wellington Street East is now officially known as Arthur Funeral Home – Barton & Kiteley Chapel.

The name change comes about as the former Barton & Kiteley Funeral Home & Cremation Centre, located at 165 Brock Street, officially closes in October.

“Mainly because of accessibility standards, we’ve chosen to close Barton & Kiteley. To update it to modern accessibility standards, because of the age of the building, it’s just not feasible to do,” said Joni Cooke, Arthur Funeral Home – Barton & Kiteley Chapel general manager.

“Because of the history there, and the two buildings being amalgamated for over 30 years anyway, we just wanted to carry the name over,” Cooke told SooToday.

Long-time funeral director Bill Kiteley is still employed with the organization.

“It was very important for us to keep his name here,” Cooke said. 

With that in mind, the Arthur building’s chapel has been named in Kiteley’s honour.

The Barton & Kiteley building on Brock Street will officially close Oct. 6.

New signage will be finished off on the exterior walls of the Arthur Funeral Home – Barton & Kiteley Chapel by the end of the week, Cooke said.

“We’ve said Canada is celebrating its 150th, and the two businesses combined have 150 years behind them,” Cooke smiled.

The business currently has 32 employees, ranging from licensed funeral directors to funeral director assistants, administrative assistants and support staff, most of whom are from the Sault and area.

No jobs will be lost as a result of the Barton & Kiteley building’s official closure, as the building hasn’t actually been used for about seven years (despite being very well-maintained), Cooke said.

Everything has been run through the Arthur Funeral home site in that time period.

“We just decided to officially close it, and we’ll be doing everything out of the Arthur site as we have been. It’s just a name change.”

The Barton & Kiteley building will be put up for sale (for any type of use, not necessarily a funeral home), and in addition, the Arthur Funeral Home – Barton & Kiteley Chapel site is looking at expanding, Cooke told us.

Saying goodbye to the Barton & Kiteley site will be a bit emotional, Cooke said, “especially with Bill Kiteley still being here, but he’s happy because we were able to incorporate his name. They had a lot of connections with people down the line, St. Joseph Island.”

The Arthur Funeral Home was established on Wellington Street East by Jim Arthur in 1938.

Barton & Kiteley Funeral Home had its origins in 1946, founded by Leonard Barton.

Bill Kiteley partnered with Barton in the 1960s, eventually purchasing the business while retaining Barton’s name in the funeral home’s title.  

The Arthur and Barton & Kiteley funeral homes went into partnership with each other in the early 1980s.  

Their joint operation eventually became part of the Dignity Memorial network in 1989.

Dignity Memorial owns over 2,000 funeral homes across North America, its head office in Houston, with a Canadian head office in BC.

“It’s been a lengthy transition but we’re proud to be able to do it and continue offering our same service, same location, just doing a name change which honours the people who started our buildings where most of us here started our careers, with the same professional care and respect for our community,” Cooke said.