About Us
History
When Louis Beinhauer opened his first mortuary downtown on Third Avenue, the year was 1860 and Pittsburgh was an active city. Industrial advancements resulted in city growth and Louis, along with his son, Ferd C., anticipated the flourishing city’s needs. They opened two branches of the original location on the South Side; one on Sixth Street and the other at the base of the old incline on Twelfth Street.
Before long, Louis and Ferd C. were joined by the third generation of Beinhauers, Ferd C. Jr. and Louis Jr. In 1910 the family moved their business to West Liberty Avenue in Dormont, a community in the South Hills. They eventually incorporated all of their facilities at this location in 1921. A Pittsburgh development that facilitated the move was the construction of the Liberty Tunnels. The tunnels through Mount Washington made access to the South Hills easy, and opened this area up to development. No strangers to innovation, the Beinhauers built Pittsburgh’s first crematory in 1921. Still in operation today, it is the second oldest continuously operating crematory in the United States.
The Beinhauers’ three-story mortuary in Dormont was designed and built specifically for funeral services, the first in Allegheny County. And although it was the first Beinhauer mortuary built at 2630 West Liberty Avenue, it was destined not be be the last. Tragedy struck in 1952, when a seven-alarm fire burned the funeral home to the ground. The following is an excerpt from a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article that reported the blaze: “Scarred walls and charred timbers were all that remained yesterday of the funeral home of L. Beinhauer & Son Company, one of Pittsburgh’s oldest and busiest funeral directors.”
The Beinhauers salvaged what they could from the rubble. Although saddened by the loss of their mortuary, they moved to construct a new building where the old one once stood. Built anew and continuously improved, it remains a Beinhauer chapel to this day, serving the needs of the South Hills community.
Rebuilding the family business would have been much more difficult at this time, had it not been for the efforts of Ferd C. III and Louis III. The fourth Beinhauer generation to serve the company, Ferd and Louis came on staff after the Great Depression and World War II. Ferd, or “Fritz” as he was known to his friends, was especially well-liked in the community.
Beinhauer Today
Ferd III ensured the future of the fifth generation of continuous family-owned funeral service with his son, Richard C. (“Rick”). Rick became president of the company in 1979. His efforts to extend Beinhauer’s services to other areas of town began in 1982, with the construction of a new chapel in Washington County. Two other chapels later became part of Beinhauer: the Lutz funeral home in 1985 and the Connell home in 1995. In 1996, the Beinhauer legacy continued as Rick’s son Scott became the sixth Beinhauer generation to serve the community, furthering a commitment to excellence that began over 144 years ago.