Durban - This week’s Durban old and new picture feature comes from Mark Levin and starts in 1883 when Samuel Dove opened a small business as an undertaker in North Street.
Within a decade, he was contractor to the Natal government, the military and the Durban Corporation. One of his contracts was to remove 109 bodies interred in the Point cemetery to the West Street cemetery. Each body was recoffined and given a funeral.
His business prospered, enabling him in 1901 to purchase an elegant double-storey house at 40 First Avenue, Greyville. At the back were workshops, coach houses and stables, which were used for his business. Although nothing remains of those buildings, Doves still operates from this property on the corner of Fynn Street. A second premises was acquired at 24-28 Berea Road, opposite the Technical College.
By the time this photograph was taken in 1935, Samuel Dove had died and his three sons had taken over. The firm also offered its private chapel with “harmonious fittings” for mourners.
It’s noteworthy that they had a funeral fund with 7000 subscribers. A monthly payment of two-and-six (in 1936) ensured an entire family a first-class funeral.
Over the years there were various mergers among funeral directors, including that with Adlam, Reid and Co, another old firm whose origins date back to about 1850.
Today the company trades under the name Doves and has disposed of the Berea Road property. The recent photo shows it today - possibly the same building, but with a substantially altered and neglected facade.