Jerrett Funeral Homes - St. Clair Chapel

Personalized funerals

When you meet our staff, you will immediately know that you and your loved ones are being cared for by professionals who are dedicated to serving families during the most difficult days in their lives. Our team creates funerals, memorials and celebrations of life that reflect the uniqueness of the people being honoured. Whatever your vision, our funeral professionals handle all of the details, designing a meaningful service.

We also offer catering during visitations, between visitations and after funeral services. Tell us what you want—coffee and snacks, a lunch buffet, a wine and cheese pairing—and we take it from there.

Multicultural services

Toronto is a diverse community, and we have team members who speak English, Italian, Vietnamese and Portuguese. We offer multicultural services that are religious and non-religious. Our funeral professionals will guide you and your family through decisions and options that reflect both your culture and your family traditions.

Your trusted provider

Jerrett Funeral Homes – St. Clair Chapel is accessible via the St. Clair Avenue West Streetcar as well as the Dufferin Street bus line. There is parking beside and behind the funeral home. Our facility has a handicap-accessible entrance for people who have difficulty with the front stairs. 

Jerrett Funeral Homes – St. Clair Chapel is a member of the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers. When you choose a Dignity Memorial provider, you receive not only the compassionate care you expect from a locally operated establishment, but also the benefits you deserve from the largest and most trusted network of funeral, cremation and memorialization companies in North America.

History

The story of Jerrett Funeral Homes begins in the mid-1930s. Jack Jerrett dreamed of a career that would allow him to serve people in a meaningful way and he wanted to be a funeral director.

At the age of 18, Jack began an apprenticeship with the Speers Funeral Home on Dundas Street, where he received his funeral director’s license. At 23, he became one of the youngest funeral directors to purchase his own chapel. With the help of many friends and family members, including his future wife, Jack bought the former Nash Funeral Home at 1141 St. Clair Ave. W. in Toronto in 1937.

Family business

Although the funeral chapel was part of Jack's dream, the early growth and success of the business was very much a family effort. Jack's parents, John and Alice, sold their home and trucking business in order to join him in the funeral business. Frances Pauline Fritz joined the firm after she and Jack got married in 1939. She became one of the 1st licensed female funeral directors in Canada, in 1942.

The business prospered, and in 1954, Jack purchased the former Bennett Funeral Home at 4661 Yonge St. in North York, then known as Willowdale. In 1965, the Scarborough Chapel at 660 Kennedy Road was opened on the site of a former mushroom plantation.

Carrying on tradition

In 1967, tragedy struck. Piloting his own plane on approach to the Toronto International Airport, Jack died in a landing accident. His death came only a year after his father died and less than a year before his mother’s death. Long-time employee Bill Stephenson helped sustain the business through this difficult time, and Jack's son, John, subsequently joined the business full-time in 1968.

The business continued to grow, and in the fall of 1993, the new North York Chapel at 6191 Yonge St. was opened to replace the building in Willowdale and to better accommodate the needs of the diverse and expanding Toronto community.