Astoria’s Abandoned Funeral Home

Published on: October 31st, 2017 | Written by: Joseph Anastasio

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For a hot minute in 2011, Astoria had its very own abandoned funeral home.

This delightfully creepy set of buildings was located right under the subway on 31st street, next to the PS 85 elementary school and around the corner from the original Beer Garden. The Kucera funeral home was in business for decades, run by Otto F Kucera. Today, many of the Kucera’s are still in the funeral directing business. Otto F. passed away in late 2010, and his family moved quickly to sell off the the property and anything of value inside.

This funeral home was also used to a TV show and a movie. Movie nerds might recognize the storefront location as the pizzeria in Goodfellas. Fans of all things creepy might recognize it from the “Rock Star Embalmer” episode of Oddities.

Having heard rumors around the neighborhood that the buildings were now vacant (and sold to a faceless real estate development company (hiding behind an LLC), we swooped in to document what was left before the bulldozers came along a few months later.

Demolition in the late summer of 2011.

Creepy basement

Some leftover debris that included old 45′ records coffin keys, and assorted funeral stuff.

Checking out the roof.

Scaffold time.

Inside the funeral parlor.

An old car hood was round in the basement – in front of it is a set of coffin keys

Embalming table

 

The creepy showroom in the basement.

Leftover coffin.

 

 

 

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Comments

NOTE: It sometimes takes a short while for comments to be approved - unfortunately there's a lot of spam comments that come in. I absolutely love when y'all share personal stories of friends relatives etc who worked in these places. It really helps capture what these places were like before they closed up shop.

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