Dover’s new museum showcases fascinating history of funerals and ambulances

For those who might be hesitant about visiting a funeral home museum, the new Smith Funeral Home and Ambulance Museum in Dover should pose no such concerns. In addition to providing a fascinating and decidedly non-creepy history of funeral homes, the place is jam-packed with vintage ambulances, toy rescue vehicles and local lore.

“You’ll never see anything uncomfortable or macabre here,” said owner Bob Smith, owner of Lebold-Smith Funeral Home in Bolivar, Smith-Varns Funeral Home in Sugarcreek and president of Smith Ambulance.

Smith has collected so many items, the 10,000-square-foot building he bought in January from the Community Baptist Church in Dover wasn’t spacious enough. So he tore down a dilapidated house next door that came with the property and added another room.

A Dover native, Smith started in the funeral business 56 years ago as an ambulance attendant at Toland-Herzig Funeral Home. Yes, an ambulance attendant. Before fire departments provided ambulance and EMS services, funeral homes did.

“I started helping them with funerals when I was 17, mowing the grass, and whatever needed done, and then I went on to attend the Cincinnati School of Mortuary Science.”

Smith has been accumulating vehicles and memorabilia for about 50 years, and the result is an extensive collection. You’ll see a great number of ambulances, including horse-drawn models, early ambulance equipment, lights and sirens, a wall of local funeral home licenses, and a wealth of other local artifacts.

Prior to their display in the new museum, these treasures were stored in three buildings in Dover and Baltic, then hauled to their new home almost solely by Smith.

“The only thing I needed help moving were the carriages and the gas pumps, because they're heavy,” he said.

Smith said the early ambulances were called combinations since they functioned as both ambulance and hearse. Among his huge collection are a 1969 Cadillac, a ’56 Ford which, according to Smith, was the last year Ford made them, a 1959 Cadillac hearse/ambulance combo.

“That’s the rarest of the rare, because of the fins on the rear,” said Smith.

Other vintage ambulances in the museum include a horse-drawn Amish hearse from the 1800s with a bed in the back for a casket and windows on the sides allowing mourners to view the casket as the procession drove by.

Smith said the earliest caskets were built by cabinet makers. Before the funeral industry as we know it today was developed, the undertaker would go to the deceased’s home, measure the body, then deliver the coffin, along with lighting and other necessities.

The body would be laid out in the home’s parlor, usually for one day, with a wake following for up to three days. Smith has created a mock parlor in the museum to demonstrate how things might have looked in the home.

One room is dedicated to the history of embalming, where a large display of early embalming equipment can be seen.

Smith’s collection includes an entire wall of local funeral directors’ licenses going back to 1901, handheld fans used during funerals before the advent of air conditioning and a great many local photos.

Smith said he hopes people will overcome any misgivings they may have and visit the museum to learn more about the history of the funeral industry.

“I’d like people to come in, look around and get a better understanding of what funeral homes do and have done throughout history,” he said.

The Smith Funeral Home and Ambulance Museum is located at 420 E. Third St. in Dover. For now, the museum is only open for groups and only by reservation.

“We’ve had a baby shower here and a district meeting of 50 funeral directors in here,” said Smith.

To reserve the museum, call the Lebold-Smith Funeral Home at 330-874-3113.