Orleans Missionary Baptist Church

This is the former home of Zimmerman Funeral Home in the Chesterfield neighborhood. At some point in the late 60’s the owners sold it to the church due to changing racial demographics at the time.
In it’s day, Zimmerman’s buried countless Hungarian and Ukrainian residents of the Burnside and Chesterfield neighborhoods. It was notoriously known to be one of the spookiest funeral homes around as it was very dimly lit, even when there was a wake going on.
This old style building is typical of most all funeral homes during that time before modern, spacious chapels became popular.
I can remember riding on the #4 Cottage Grove, Rosa Parks style bus that looked like a green loaf of bread sputtering along the way passing noxious fumes of diesel exhaust. The eerie purple neon sign in Zimmerman’s lead glass windows made it look all that more creepy. If only those walls could talk… I wonder what happened to the original owner, John & Mary?
As far as the church goes, I have no clue, but it’s nice to see not all old architecture is destroyed with the changing times and progress.