McEwen Funeral Service at Sharon Memorial Park

A welcoming Charlotte funeral home

McEwen Funeral Service is located in the heart of Charlotte, in Cotswold. As the largest city in North Carolina, Charlotte and its surrounding areas are diverse, vibrant and constantly evolving. We are a non-denominational funeral home and our team members work with people of all cultures, faiths and beliefs to create one-of-a-kind memorials that reflect family, cultural and religious traditions while also celebrating unique lives.

Whether you want an intimate affair or a large soiree, we can handle all types of services at our funeral home. Our spacious chapel seats 150-200 guests and has flat-screen TVs for tribute videos. The visitation room is a cozy space for both visitations and smaller services. 

We’re here to tell your story

Every life should be celebrated like no other. That is something we firmly believe. At McEwen Funeral Service, we will do everything we can to customize your loved one’s funeral or memorial service so it truly reflects his or her passions, style and personality.

Did he cheer on the Carolina Panthers every season? We can serve his favorite game day snacks and outfit family and friends in customized jerseys. Did she make the best Carolina-style barbecue in town? We can throw a picnic with all the fixings and share her famous recipe with guests. We can incorporate any theme, prized possessions, photographs and mementos you desire. There’s almost no limit to what we can do.

Your caring provider

McEwen Funeral Service is a member of the Dignity Memorial® network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers, delivering compassionate care and excellent service you can trust. Our team members are committed to serving you with dignity, honor and respect.

Please give us a call if you need immediate assistance or if you would like more information about planning ahead for a funeral.

Sharon Memorial Park cemetery

Situated on 140 acres on Monroe Road, Sharon Memorial Park was designed with beauty and tranquility in mind. With sparkling lakes, elegant Italian marble statues, European artwork and a magnificent indoor mausoleum, Sharon Memorial Park is a verdant and serene final resting spot for loved ones. Sharon Memorial Park has a beautiful light-filled mausoleum chapel for committal services. 

Wide variety of burial options

Sharon Memorial Park provides many different burial, entombment and cremation memorialization options. Whether you prefer traditional ground burial, lawn crypts, community or private mausoleum entombment, private lakeside estates, cremation benches, cremation niches or something else entirely, we can help you customize a final resting spot to meet your needs.

One of our most breathtaking options is Sharon Mausoleum, which was built in 1950 to resemble the churches of Tuscany, Italy. There are numerous entombment choices available in Sharon Mausoleum, including single crypts, companion crypts, couch crypts and sarcophagi. For families who choose cremation, we have gorgeous glass-front niches that can be personalized with flowers, mementos, photographs and a customized urn.

Garden dedicated to Catholic families

Though we serve families of all faiths, cultures and backgrounds at Sharon Memorial Park, we have a special garden in our cemetery dedicated to those of the Catholic faith. Located along the banks of a lovely pond, Holy Redeemer Catholic Garden stands out for its Holy Redeemer Crucifix feature, which sits on a 96-niche cremation columbarium and is surrounded by cremation benches with walkways leading to private hedge estates. The garden has plenty of land available for future development and will be able to serve Catholic families for many generations to come.

Committed to serving you

It is our honor to provide cemetery services to the Charlotte community. We understand how important it is to choose a final resting spot that’s beautiful, dignified and personalized. Our team members strive to keep the cemetery grounds well-maintained and beautifully landscaped all year long. We encourage you to come to visit or take a tour of our peaceful grounds.

Sharon Mausoleum: A grand and magnificent structure

The most striking building Sharon Memorial Park is certainly Sharon Mausoleum. With its Spanish-style tiled roof, Romanesque architecture and exterior made of stone from Doria, Italy, the building is reminiscent of the churches and monasteries of Tuscany. Famed architect Cecil E. Bryan designed the mausoleum. Construction was completed in 1950.

Inside the building, there are several marble corridors, including a Catholic corridor and a corridor named for Dr. William L. Halberstadt, who founded the memorial park. Several stained-glass windows depicting Christian themes add to the grandeur.

A modern, light-filled chapel for committal services looks out onto a picturesque wooded area of the cemetery property. The chapel accommodates approximately 30 guests.

Historic cemetery relocated to Sharon Memorial Park

In 1988, a historic cemetery dating back almost 200 years was transferred from Nations Ford Road to Sharon Memorial Park. This centuries-old cemetery needed to relocate because, in 1985, a rock quarry company started quarrying rock along Nations Ford Road and realized it needed to move the cemetery to a new location.

It was a cemetery for some of Charlotte’s more prominent families: the Smartts and Barnetts, who were early settlers of the area. The cemetery included 26 graves, and after obtaining permission from their descendants, the quarry company relocated it 10 miles down the road to Sharon Memorial Park. If you get a chance to visit the cemetery, look for the bronze marker for Susanna Barnett Smartt. According to family history, she witnessed the signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and was acquainted with Andrew Jackson and James Knox Polk before the men became presidents.

History

In the early 1900s, R.J. McEwen, a carpenter and cabinet maker, started making coffins for friends and neighbors as a simple, neighborly act without any thought of pay. The South was in the middle of a deadly flu epidemic, and R.J. tried to fill a desperate need. Throughout rural areas in those days, neighbors served in the capacity of funeral directors as best they could.

Father and son start a funeral business

In 1915, Carl J. McEwen began following in his father's footsteps. Father and son even stocked a few manufactured caskets for sale in their Mint Hill, North Carolina, hardware store. This continued until 1921 when they purchased their 1st hearse and began performing funerals. Bettie McEwen, Carl's sister, joined the company after serving in the armed forces.

The firm grows and flourishes

Business grew, and in 1926, the McEwens opened McEwen Funeral Home of Mint Hill, North Carolina. The family also recognized that the community needed a cemetery and developed Evergreen Burial Park in Mint Hill.

In 1935, they opened a funeral home in Monroe, North Carolina. They built the current Mint Hill funeral home in 1936. In 1947, the demand from Charlotte became so great that the family opened McEwen Funeral Service Inc. at 727 E. Morehead St. With growing demand came a Derita location in 1972 and the Pineville chapel in 1993.

The current funeral home, adjacent to Sharon Memorial Park, opened in 2007.

History of Sharon Memorial Park

Sharon Memorial Park was founded on December 9, 1939, by Dr. William L. Halberstadt. He designed the cemetery property with the sentiment that the final resting place of our loved ones should be a space of quiet beauty and an everlasting garden spot that evokes happy memories and tells the story of a life.

To accomplish this, upright monuments and tombstones were not allowed at his cemetery. Graves were marked with flat bronze markers on concrete foundations in a setting landscaped and kept as if it were a park. Today, bronze markers are now installed on granite foundations and upright monuments are allowed at Lakeside and the Holy Redeemer Garden.