Previously on EV Grieve:
Showing posts with label Peter Jarema Funeral Home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Jarema Funeral Home. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Noted
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Dead again: Peter Jarema Funeral Home ad replaced by the Marvel Universe on 7th and B
Photo by Salim
The ad for the Peter Jarema Funeral Home on the north-facing wall at 108 Avenue B and Seventh Street is dead.
Long live the ad for the Peter Jarema Funeral Home on the north-facing wall at 108 Avenue B and Seventh Street!
Yesterday morning, workers replaced the new ad (as of February) for the longtime East Village business with one for Coca-Cola and the Marvel Universe.
During exterior renovations last June (first reported here), workers sandblasted away the former ad for the funeral home that's on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.
The decades-spanning ad touted "Air Conditioned Chapels," and there was a smaller sign for "Vazac Hall Catering" (and "Fine Food"), a nod to the business before the current and longstanding tenant Vazac's/the Horseshoe Bar/7B.
The mystery executive behind putting the Jarema banner back on the wall told the Post in February that the ad would come down this month... but may return during slower time periods.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Ad week in review
While speculating why workers took down the ad (did they read EVG reader comments about the font?), it went right back up...
And later on Thursday...
Anyway, as you all were!
Photos 1, 2 — Salim
Photo 3 — Robert Miner
Photo 4 — Stacie Joy
Monday, February 12, 2024
Peter Jarema Funeral Home ad comes back from the dead on 7th and B
Top photo and new reporting by Stacie Joy
In a surprising move on Friday, workers put up a new ad for the Peter Jarema Funeral Home on the north-facing wall at 108 Avenue B and Seventh Street.
During exterior renovations last June (first reported here), workers sandblasted away the former ad for the funeral home that's on Seventh Street between Avenue A and First Avenue.
According to work permits on file with the Department of Buildings, the landlord had approved plans to remove the "deteriorated metal cornice" and "build up and maintain existing brick parapet."
Here is the result of that work last summer...
I reached out to Danny Buzzetta, the owner/managing director of Peter Jarema.
He figured the old ad had been there for at least 60 years and still featured the phone number listed as OR 4-2568 (letters representing 6 and 7 with the known constant of the 212 area code).
Buzzetta said that someone affiliated with the restoration contacted him last year, saying that after the building finished the brickwork, he wanted to put up a new sign as an ode to an East Village "legacy" business. (We're still determining if this was someone from the landlord, Gibraltar Management Company, or the contractor. We're chasing down that lead now.)
"Honestly, I was shocked because I was very upfront that I don't have the money to pay for this, and as appreciative as the thought was, I never actually thought it was going to happen," Buzzetta said. "But lo and behold, here we are!"
Via the NYC Municipal Archives, we found this street view from the early 1940s...
As far as we can tell, the ad is for Treadway Shoes (at 67 Avenue B?). A 1980s photo from the Municipal Archives shows the funeral home ad in place, though it's obviously older than that, given the presence of the dated telephone exchange.
There was also some thought — without much evidence — that the ad was created (or augmented) for filming 1974's "The Godfather Part II" (one of many movies and TV shows filmed at the bar).
Here's the scene (RIP Frank Pentangelli!) shot inside and outside the bar. However, we don't see any ads on the building ...
Friday, March 22, 2019
A visit to Peter Jarema Funeral Home on 7th Street
Interview and photos by Stacie Joy
It’s not without some trepidation that I visit the Peter Jarema Funeral Home, 129 E. Seventh St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.
It’s probably totally normal to be weirded out by death and dying, but owner/managing director Danny Buzzetta puts me at ease immediately. He shows me around the chapel and the overflow room, carefully explaining the A/V system ...
... and then takes me upstairs to visit the casket showroom. The coffins are surprising in some ways: they have locks on the outside to avoid any “in-transit surprises” and they are very plush and comfortable inside. There are also different materials, colors and styles to choose from.
I get to admire some traditional red and gold Ukrainian vestments (the home was historically of service to the Ukrainian Orthodox community but is nondenominational), and Danny patiently answers my questions as we sit in the office. We talk about the history of the place, changes in modern-day loss and bereavement, and what’s next for the home (one of three along with Provenzano Lanza and R.G. Ortiz remaining in the neighborhood).
What can you tell us about the founder, Pietro Jarema? I read where he emigrated here from Austria in 1893.
Personally, I don’t know much on the history of the original Jaremas as these things weren’t written down and were lost over the generations. The handwritten archive books of Jarema Funeral Home are simply the funeral records themselves and back then — up until recent times really — very little was [legally] required to be kept, so the books themselves are hard to decipher, due to bad handwriting, and there’s also a lot of shorthand/initials that just don’t mean much to me trying to read it now.
The interesting part that I can decipher is basically the cost of a funerals from back in the early 1900s compared to now — it’s night and day.
Your father became the owner in 1987. Why did you decide to carry on with the business?
I am an only child, after finishing my B.A. at Binghamton University in accounting and working in a corporate office for nearly two years as an assistant auditor, I didn’t enjoy my job. I saw the opportunity of my father’s partner looking to retire as a better career move.
I went to American Academy McAllister Institute to complete my funeral director education and received my license. I’ve been the managing director/owner at Peter Jarema Funeral Home for nearly eight years now.
How do you handle the emotions of the job?
Handling the emotions can be difficult but part of this job is being able to provide caring and detailed-oriented service to the families that we serve. This is best done with my personal emotions not getting the best of me and allowing me to be clearly focused on the family’s needs.
What observations do you have about the East Village based on your experiences planning services with residents through the years?
The biggest observation is just how quickly the neighborhood can change. From businesses to residents it feels like both are coming and going at lightening pace. Trying to establish a relationship can be difficult when so quickly that business may be gone or that family may have moved away.
How has the typical customer changed over the years?
Our typical customers have changed in a few ways. First, many people are moving away from traditional funeral services and are looking for quicker and less-expensive options.
As an example: we rarely have two full-day viewings with mass and burial on the third day ... now customers are more likely to have a two-hour viewing in the morning, go to mass, and burial all in the same day. Or forgo the viewing all together and do a cremation in order to help alleviate the costs.
Second, the customer now is much more mobile/tech-savvy to where they will price shop one funeral home to another before they even set foot in the home to make arrangements. Of course, this goes hand in hand with all aspects of life as the internet and social media didn’t exist for most of the 113 years of Peter Jarema Funeral Home existence.
An ad is still visible on the side of Vazac's/the Horseshoe Bar at 108 Avenue B stating, in part, “Air Conditioned Chapels 129 E. 7th St. OR 4-2568.” Do you still receive queries about that?
We don’t ever get any inquiries about that old ad.
Real estate being what it is in NYC, especially the East Village, what is the long-term future of Peter Jarema Funeral Home?
My long-term future for Peter Jarema is to continue providing dignified and affordable services for decades to come. I have two young sons who I would love to pass along the opportunity to continue the family legacy and keep Jarema going for another 113 years.
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