160 Years of Pearsons

In 1848, the same year that Cave Hill Cemetery was dedicated, he set up shop at Second and Main, next to the original Galt House.

Occasionally, he was asked to construct wooden coffins. Demand created the need to inventory ready made coffins and provide additional services, and within a very short time, he was established as an "undertaker", or one who undertook the arrangements for burial

Within a few years, he moved to a location between Second and Third on Jefferson. There business was conducted until 1898, when it was moved to a large brick residence on the southeast corner of Third and Chestnut.

During those years, the firm witnessed the Civil War and the growth of Louisville as one of the South's largest cities, growth which was paralleled by the firm and its profession.

Edward C. Pearson, son of the founder, became a leader in promoting the education and licensing of embalmers, and he himself held the first embalmer's license issued in Kentucky. He also designed the original wood paneled hearse. When motor vehicles came into use, one of these bodies was mounted on a motor-driven chassis and became Louisville's first motor-driven hearse. Within seven years of that innovation, the horse-drawn funeral disappeared, and the stable, which had been a part of every undertaker's equipment, was replaced by the Funeral Auto Company, of which E.C. Pearson was the first President.

In 1917, the third generation of Pearson's assumed direction of the business under E. Clarence Pearson, succeeded in '38 by his brother W. Edward Pearson.

In 1924, one of Louisville's most beautiful private residences, on Third and
Ormsby, became the home of the Pearson institution. (Currently, the old Ferguson Mansion houses the Filson Club Historical Society.)

That same year, Pearson's was invited into membership in the Selected Independent Funeral Homes (formerly National Selected Morticians), the premiere association of funeral homes worldwide. Two of the Pearsons, E.C. Pearson and David F. Pearson have served as directors on the board of NSM. making them two of only five funeral directors in Kentucky to ever hold that position.

Under the leadership of Clyde, E.C. and Robert A. Pearson, an additional funeral home was built at 149 Breckenridge Lane in 1951. Pearson's fifth home has been located in the heart of the City of St. Matthews since nearly the city's beginning, having incorporated in 1950. The St. Matthews home became the main office of Pearson's following the sale of their Third Street Home in 1978.

Today, the business is in the hands of the fifth generation. David F. and Robert S. Pearson succeeded their fathers in 1986. Robert S. Pearson is currently President of the firm, while David F. Pearson and Larry L. Robbins serve on the Board of Directors.

In 2001, the 50 year-old facility on Breckenridge Lane was renovated, adding a new lounge, visitation room, additional restrooms, and improved parking.

Robert and David Pearson are committed to carrying on the traditions of a vocation which has passed from father to son in an unbroken line since its founding - a tradition of thoughtful, sympathetic, and intelligent service.