Eickhof Columbaria’s first columbarium was an interior wall installation in our home church, First Presbyterian Church, in Crookston, Minnesota. This columbarium was installed in the mid 1980’s. The interior space was chosen because of its convenience to congregation members, especially in the cold Minnesota winters. The columbarium has filled an important need to congregation members who have unexpectedly lost family members to illness, accident, or untimely death. It has provided an opportunity for congregation members to discuss and plan for their own funerals and burial wishes. The columbarium is available at a reasonable cost to members of the community who are not congregation members. The church sited columbarium has provided an alternative for families who wish to memorialize loved ones outside the traditional cemetery.
For some of the same reasons outlined above, other churches, cathedrals, cemeteries, and religious institutions are installing interior columbaria to serve congregation and community members.
Retirement communities who have existing chapels, or are planning new ones, are finding that they can serve community members with an interior chapel columbarium. Husbands and wives often enter a retirement community together. Their children may live close by or may live at great distances. With cremation, the cremains of the spouse who passes away first may not have an appropriate memorial area. A columbarium at the retirement community serves this need for the surviving spouse and family members.
Cemeteries often have existing cemetery structures such as mausoleums, chapels, and receiving vaults. These structures can be retrofitted with interior columbarium niches. The light weight Eickhof columbarium niches, independent of mold or form, can be fabricated to fit existing walls. The niches can be fabricated in sections and moved to interior spaces through existing doorways. The sections, once inside, are connected together and fastened to the walls. They can then be finished in materials appropriate to the existing architecture. This type of columbarium retrofit can turn a once non-revenue producing structure into a columbarium memorial, producing revenue, and once again serving members of the community.
> Churches & Religious Institutions
> Retirement Communities
> Cemeteries
