Staff photo / Bob Coupland From left, Joseph Rossi Funeral Home owners Joseph F. Rossi III, Thomas Rossi Sr. and Joseph F. Rossi Jr. look over photos of the funeral home’s 100-year history as the oldest family business in Niles. The funeral home business was started by Joseph Rossi Sr. and Josephine Rossi.

NILES — Joseph Rossi Funeral Home is marking a special milestone this year of providing 100 years of funeral and memorial services.

Joseph F. Rossi Jr. and sons Joseph F. III and Thomas are owners of the family business located on Robbins Avenue.

Joseph Jr. said the business was started by his parents, Joseph Rossi Sr. and Josephine Rossi.

“At 100 years old, we are the oldest family-owned business in Niles,” he said.

Thomas said what has changed over the years is with the style of funeral services. He said that years ago viewings of the deceased and the funeral would be held in a family’s home, but now everything takes place at the funeral home.

Thomas said with cremations, services take place at different locations.

Joseph said it has been 40 years since a funeral and calling hours have been held in someone’s home with the funeral home the central location.

He said his father would use a large cross for the funerals in people’s homes.

Thomas said the Sacred Heart of Jesus icon is used often today at funerals.

The Rossis said they have had generations of local families who have held their funerals through them.

START ON ERIE STREET

Joseph said the funeral home was originally inside a house on Erie Street, where the Mount Carmel parish center is today.

Joseph said the house had an embalming room and a casket room. He said the church later purchased the building and tore it down.

He said his father came to Niles from Pennsylvania and earned his mortuary license in 1924 and started the business in 1926.

The current location opened in 1933 with a first addition in 1941 and a second addition to the building in the mid 1960s. The family has many photos of how the building has changed over the years.

Joseph said the funeral home handles between 80 to 100 funerals per year.

Thomas and Joseph III said they became part of the business having grown up seeing what their dad and other family members did.

Thomas said he and his brother were teenagers helping to park cars at night in the parking lot using orange cone lights or driving flowers to a church.

“My brother and I and my dad all grew up here and helped when we were young to adulthood,” Thomas said.

“Assisting the people in their time of need is what is important,” Joseph III said, noting he has met so many people through the business.

“We are doing what we can to help people in what is their most difficult time,” Thomas said.

Joseph Jr. said the majority of the families they have known through the community and the local church.

Thomas said often it was Catholics who came to them for funeral services but over the years it has become people of different faiths coming to them.

Joseph said they handle funerals for infants to those over 100.

He said he remembers his parents telling of the many infant funerals they had in the 1920s and 1930s but today infant funerals are rare.

LONG LINES ALONG SIDEWALKS

Thomas said for individuals who die who are well known in the community there can be more than 1,000 people attending with lines out the door and along the sidewalk on Robbins Avenue.

“You don’t see that as much as we used to. We still have prominent people whose calling hours are here but the lines are not like they used to be,” Thomas said.

Joseph said he has been licensed for 57 years. When he was in school following his father’s death in 1953, he helped his mother, sister and brother-in-law where he could at the funeral home.

Thomas, who has been licensed for 26 years, said when he and his brother trained they received four-year degrees in college and a year of mortuary school and a year of internship.

Joseph III has been licensed for 25 years. Both trained at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science where their dad went.

He said today people take classes online and go to school for embalming and then an internship.

Thomas said there are fewer family-owned funeral homes than there used to be.

Joseph said many funeral homes often don’t have younger generations in their families who want to take them over.

He said his sister, Marie Vross, died in March at age 99.

“We were planning a big celebration for her birthday and the funeral home’s 100 years,” Joseph said.

He said his sister, when she went to mortuary school in the 1940s, was the only female in her class.

Marie and her husband, George, ran the business with Josephine after Joseph Sr.’s death. Joseph Jr. became licensed in 1969.

Thomas said changes have included having websites for information and also for the obituaries.

Joseph said he has seen more and more veterans from different wars having funerals.

Thomas and Joseph III said they have seen the grandparents and parents of friends as well as friends themselves have funerals.

Thomas said a challenging time was in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic in making sure people were kept apart from each other for safety and followed all health guidelines.

“We were Joseph Rossi Funeral Home in 1926 and still Joseph Rossi Funeral Home in 2026,” Thomas said.