MacKinnon Family Funeral Home

55 Mill Street East

Acton, ON L7J 1H4

Phone: 519-853-0350 / 1-877-421-9860

Fax: 519-853-1656

Email: mackinnonfuneralhome@sympatico.ca

Immediate Need

If you have immediate need of our services, we're available for you 24 hours a day.

Obituaries & Tributes

It is not always possible to pay respects in person, so we hope that this small token will help.

Transfers

Want to transfer your pre-arrangements to MacKinnon Family Funeral Home? You can!

Pre-Arrangement

A gift to your family, sparing them hard decisions at an emotional time.

Our Heritage

Our Heritage and the History of the

MacKinnon Family Funeral Home Ltd

In approximately 1860, Mr. John Speight opened the first undertaking business in Acton, J.A. Speight & Company, on Willow Street (in the store which later became Hotchen’s Bakery and is currently an empty lot). He ran a furniture store and undertaking business from this location. At this time visitation and funerals were usually conducted from the home of the deceased. In January of 1881, John Speight’s eldest son, Joseph became a partner in the firm and then when John died July 7, 1881, he became the owner.

from January 11, 1900 issue of The Acton Independent & Free Press

from January 29, 1903 issue of the Acton Independent and Free Press

Our funeral home was founded in 1885 by Mr. William Johnstone and his wife, Mabel as Johnstone & Company. In 1903 Joseph Speight sold his business to Mr. William Johnstone and his wife Mabel . At that time the business operated from the building on the corner of Mill and John Street (where the youth centre currently operates) as both a furniture store and an undertaking business.

(Photo on the right - William B. Johnstone - 1862 - 1930).

William B. Johnstone - 1862 - 1930

Victor B. Rumley - 1901- 1963

The Johnstone’s daughter, May, married Victor Rumley and in 1923 Vic became a partner in the business and the name of the company was changed to “Johnstone & Rumley Funeral Home”. Mr. Johnstone died in 1930 and in 1937 Vic bought the Storey House (the present location) which was just across the street at 55 Mill Street and moved the undertaking business to its present location. The name of the company was changed to “Rumley Funeral Home”.

Mr. Rumley sold the furniture store in 1948 to Elma Braida and Ray West. It was not until the early 1940’s that people started having visitation and funerals from the funeral parlor. In the late 1930’s and early 1940’s the Rumley’s lived in half of the first floor of the funeral home and operated the business out of the room which is now called “Shoemaker Chapel”. As more people came to the parlors to hold a visitation and to bury their family members, the Rumley family moved their residence to the second and third floors of the funeral home.

55 Mill Street East as it was when Mr. Rumley turned it into a funeral home

In October of 1954 Bruce Shoemaker and his father Amos Shoemaker purchased the funeral home from Vic Rumley. Bruce and Rhoda Shoemaker were newlyweds at the time. The name of the funeral home was changed to Rumley-Shoemaker Funeral Home and in 1976 they changed the name of the funeral home to “Shoemaker Funeral Home”. They also put an addition on the house which included the room which is now used as a coffee lounge and the basement where the selection room is located. In 1994, the Shoemakers sold the firm to the Arbor Corporation.

Bruce A Shoemaker

Robert E. MacKinnon

The business was operated by Arbor for five years and in October 1999 Bob MacKinnon and his wife Margaret purchased the business and changed the name once again to “MacKinnon Family Funeral Home --Shoemaker Chapel”. Margaret and Bob moved to Acton from Toronto and very quickly became part of the community. They are very proud of the heritage of this business, the beautiful facility in which they live and operate the funeral home, and appreciate immensely the manner in which they have been accepted and befriended by the families of Acton. In January 2015, Mr. MacKinnon retired, and the MacIntyre family from Guelph purchased the funeral home and will continue the tradition.

The building that the MacKinnon Family Funeral Home operates from has a history all of its own. It was built in 1879 by William H. Storey.

William H. Storey came to Canada as a child in 1845 and came to Acton in 1856 as a saddle apprentice. He branched out on his own and eventually owned the Storey Glove Factory which was located on Bower Avenue (where the Post Office is currently). He built this beautiful Victorian Home at 55 Mill Street East for his family. It was called The Sunderland Villa". His carriage house was located at 7 John Street and he heated the carriage house and his home via underground steam pipes from the factory.

W.H. Storey Glove Manufacturer on The Bower, Acton

Mr. Storey died in 1898. After the first world war the building was used to house soldiers and then sat derelict for a number of years until Vic Rumley purchased it in 1937 and moved the funeral home to this location. It is a beautiful building both inside and out. Margaret and Bob love the grand old house and whenever they do any renovations or decorating they try to adhere to the style of the Victorian period when it was built. In 1954 the business at the Glove Factory was dissolved and the building was demolished.

55 Mill Street East as it was in the 1800's