History

1923 Gathering of Baltimore Area Funeral Directors in front of Warfield-Rohr’s Calvert Street Location

Bill of sale from 1892

Warfield-Rohr Casket Company Inc. can trace its origins back to 1870 when Mr. G. W. Warfield and Mr. Henry Rohr started a casket and undertaker’s supply business. Operating from 120-122 Hopkins Place, Baltimore, Maryland, Warfield and Rohr, as it was then known, began servicing undertakers in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

On January 1, 1908, Warfield and Rohr reorganized and became Warfield and Rohr Company of Baltimore City, a corporation, with widow Lizzie Rohr named as director and manager. During these years, Mr. Alva D. Feete, an ancestor to the current ownership, became an employee, officer, director and owner of Warfield and Rohr Company of Baltimore City.

Marshall, Daulton, and Edward Feete in the Calvert Street Office in the late 1960’s

William Howard Ayres

On April 24, 1923, Warfield and Rohr Company of Baltimore City announced the official opening of its new plant and showroom at 323-327 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The new facility contained warehouse storage space, factory floor space for casket manufacturing, a modern showroom and a preparation room so that the funeral director could embalm a body and place it in a casket prior to returning the deceased home for viewing.

In 1948, Warfield and Rohr Company of Baltimore City changed its name to Warfield-Rohr Casket Company, Incorporated, the name by which it is known today.

In the fall of 1982, Warfield-Rohr Casket Company, Inc., left North Calvert Street and settled into its current facility, the modern warehouse at 901 W. Patapsco Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland.

In the ensuing years, Warfield-Rohr Casket Company, Inc. expanded its distribution network to include warehouses in Lynchburg and Newport News, Virginia, as well as Dover, Delaware.

Today, Warfield-Rohr Casket Company, Inc. is owned by Marsha Feete Ayres and operated by her two sons-in-law, John Rosenberger and Michael Osmeyer. Marsha is the wife of the late William Howard Ayres, a long time influential personality in the casket industry, both locally and nationally. John’s sons Jonathan and Kevin and Mike’s son Drew have also entered the business and have become the 6th generation of the Feete family to work for the company.