Home sweet funeral home

By COLLIN CALDERWOOD ccalderwood@thehawkeye.com Randy Gearhart, chaplain and director of the spiritual care department at Great River Medical Center, is selling the Sheagren Funeral Home.

The property originally was built in 1872 by Frederick A. Smith. His daughter, Millie Smith, grew up in the home and married Edward Eastman, president of Eastman Furniture.

When her father died, Millie and Edward inherited the home, which is when it became the Eastman Estate. Millie and Edward lived out the rest of their lives in the Eastman Estate. Millie out-lived her husband by 34 years, eventually passing away in 1959. With her passing, she donated her home to the Burlington hospital.

It was Millie's wish the hospital turn the house into a nursing home, and if that wasn't feasible, the hospital could sell it. The hospital didn't want to use it as a nursing home, so they sold it, and in 1960, it became a funeral home, Gearhart said.

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The interior of the home is almost completely restored. The back servant's quarters bedroom, ensuite bathroom, back hallway and staircase is all that's left. The most recent restoration work is the demolition of a 52-year-old addition to the home.

The funeral chapel was built as an addition to the home in 1960 and needed to be demolished to restore the home to its original status. When the addition first was built, the construction changed some of the original exterior of the house. Now that the demolition is complete, the clean up and restoration can begin.

"Hopefully, before summer is over, it will be all back to original," Randy Gearhart said.

Even though the house is not listed with any realtors, the couple has listed the house on historicproperties.com for $749,000.

"It's a huge home, and we have put a lot of money in and work into it. When we list it with a realtor, the price might come down $100,000. It just depends on the rest of the restoration," Gearhart said.

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Home sweet funeral home