Chapel Lawn Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens

A funeral home with options

The Chapel Lawn Funeral Home is 18,000 square feet and sits on the southeast corner of the cemetery property. A blend of contemporary and traditional architecture, the funeral home has a large lounge and banquet room. There are 2 visitation rooms with skylights. The funeral home's chapel, Gregory Shapen Memorial Chapel, seats approximately 200 and is flooded with natural light.

There are 2 other chapels located at the memorial gardens, not the funeral home. There is a chapel in the Angels Mausoleum that holds around 100 people for a committal service and then another smaller chapel that accommodates about 50.

We celebrate life

All of our services are designed to give families peace of mind at one of the most challenging times in their lives. Our experienced staff knows just how to create your vision or bring your loved one's final wishes to reality. We offer everything from a traditional funeral to a modern celebration of life.

Personal touches can be small—photo displays and speeches by friends are common—or more elaborate. We could hang a cross behind the casket, have a motorcycle at the front door or wear the jerseys of a person's favorite sports team. And if it's a grand celebration of life that you're looking for—a modern gathering with themed decor, live music, and a send-off that reflects the personality and passions of yourself or your loved one—that's our speciality. We can also arrange any catering needs you may have through a 3rd-party caterer.

These are just a few ideas. Let's imagine something special together.

Here for you

Chapel Lawn Funeral Home and Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens are easily accessed by Lincoln Highway and Cline Avenue. In addition to serving the residents of Schererville, we provide the communities of New Elliott, St. John, Merrillville and Crown Point with quality compassionate care.

As members of the Dignity Memorial® network, Chapel Lawn Funeral Home and Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens give you not only the warm, familiar attention you expect from locally operated businesses but also the value you deserve by way of the largest network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers in North America.

Please contact us anytime. We are here to assist you will every aspect of celebrating a life.

History

Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens was established in 1955 as a Catholic cemetery in Schererville, Indiana. In 1983, George T. Shapen became the owner.

George was responsible for developing many of the cemetery’s gardens and features, including the Garden of Freedom. Designed around a full-size copy of the Liberty Bell, which originated as a traveling educational tool for schools in the 1970s, the garden is truly one-of-a-kind.

George also developed the cemetery's Garden of Inspiration, Garden of the Lake, Garden of Friendship and Garden of Peace Mausoleum. He oversaw the completion of the Eternal Love Garden and Christus Garden. George retired in 1997, and the property later became part of the Dignity Memorial network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers.

Before his retirement, George’s dream of building a funeral home on the cemetery grounds started to become a reality. Chapel Lawn Funeral Home opened in 1999.

Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens cemetery

Comprising 120 gently rolling acres of northern Indiana prairie, Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens is a picturesque final resting place. In addition to trees and ornamental plants, the cemetery property has many gardens, each with unique features. An inclusive cemetery, it has sections devoted to specific groups, including Freemasons, Christians and members of the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center.

Burial, entombment and cremation options

Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens offers a variety of interment options: traditional ground burial, family estates, cremation garden and niches, private and community mausoleum entombment, and lawn-crypt burial.

To preserve the cemetery's park-like atmosphere, most of our gardens have ground-level memorials, though the Garden of Friendship allows for upright monuments.

The cremation garden has cremation benches and above-ground inurnments, monuments for urns with companion posts and an area for scattering cremated remains.

Angels Mausoleum has a choice of interior (heated and air conditioned) and exterior crypts. Private mausoleums are also an option.

Visit us

Photos convey a lot, but we invite you to see the cemetery property for yourself. You are welcome to visit anytime, or call to set up a guided tour. We are happy to show you around.

Veterans funerals

The teams at Chapel Lawn have experience providing funerals with full military honors. The funeral home and cemetery work with all branches of the military to give U.S. service members proper memorials.

The cemetery property includes a veterans garden only for members of the military. The Garden of Freedom—dedicated to those who have served in the armed forces, though not specific only for veterans—includes a replica of the Liberty Bell. Both sections display flags for all military branches, as well as United States, Prisoner of War and Missing in Action flags. We host a Memorial Day program each year at the cemetery.

Community events

Chapel Lawn Funeral Home and Chapel Lawn Memorial Gardens serve everyone as if they are members of our own families. We are available not only during times of grief, but also during times of joy. We invite families we have served, as well as Schererville and surrounding communities, to events throughout the year, including programs for Mother’s Day, Memorial Day and Christmas.

For Memorial Day, we work with the Legion Post 66 to put more than 7,000 flags on the graves of veterans. During the December holidays, we host a memorial event at Shapen Chapel for all families who have lost loved ones.