Plotting the success of a business for 100 years no small feat for Hulse, Playfair & McGarry

There aren’t many businesses that have had guests pull up to their doors in a horse-and-buggy and that now interact with clients and community on Facebook.

Except Ottawa’s Hulse, Playfair & McGarry, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

There aren’t many businesses that have had guests pull up to their doors in a horse-and-buggy and that now interact with clients and community on Facebook.  Except Ottawa’s Hulse, Playfair & McGarry, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. In 1925, Charles and Percy Hulse formed a partnership, the Hulse Brothers. In 1933, Charles invited Keith Playfair to join him as partner. Within a few years, the firm's name changed from Hulse Brothers to Hulse & Playfair. In 1938-39, the partnership built Ottawa's first funeral chapel with its McLeod Street location. Today, the firm is one of Ottawa's largest locally owned and operated funeral businesses, owned and operated by Sharon McGarry and Patrick McGarry. Strategizing around the future of transportation was just one of the unusual things the funeral home had to do to stay competitive over the past century. In 1925, horses and buggies were common and cars were a rarity. But that was changing and today, of course, the opposite is true. And the last thing guests want to do when grieving is wrestle with a parking meter. 

Fortunately, as Sharon McGarry recalls, the original owners bought up property around their downtown location on McLeod Street, resulting in the parking lot that people use today.  For the funeral business, which could be perceived as largely immune to change, that evolution is just the tip of the iceberg.  Tom Flood, senior vice-president and funeral director, remembers that when he joined the company in the mid-1960s, there were 17 independent funeral homes in Ottawa. Today, Hulse, Playfair & McGarry is one of just three.  And while death and taxes may be certain, the rules around what is a heavily regulated industry are constantly evolving. 

For example, Hulse, Playfair & McGarry is an Ontario-based business, but its crematorium is in Quebec. This is because, at the time the business was started, funeral homes could not own crematoriums in Ontario, leading the company to look for an alternative location.  The company also had to adjust to new rules and market dynamics in 2012, when a long-standing regulation that prevented cemeteries from having funeral homes was abolished. “The funeral service changed dramatically,” Flood said. But perhaps the most significant change has not been based on regulations or modes of transportation. Instead, it’s been in how people interact with the funeral business. Today, families and friends are intimately involved in the plans for commemorating their loved ones, but that hasn’t always been the case.  Patrick McGarry, the company’s chief operating officer, was a summer student when he started working with the company in 1991, wrangling floral arrangements for formal, traditional two-day services. But the past few decades have seen a considerable shift.  “What I’ve seen over the last 35 years is more personalization, more people getting back involved in the celebration, engagement and having more of an experience,” he said, pointing to interactive experiences such as photo walls, video montages and internet broadcasts that allow family and friends to take a leading part in how their loved one is celebrated. And, yes, Facebook plays a big role, serving as a platform for obituaries and memorials. Sharon McGarry, the company’s president, said simply: “We have to learn to adapt.” 

Like many businesses, some adaptations were forced by the COVID pandemic. Initiatives such as expanding digital services suddenly got an accelerated timeline. The company now offers seminars on niche topics such as estate planning for blended families and with a digital executor (hint: someone has to be responsible for a deceased person’s online footprint, including social media accounts, digital photos and banking apps).  “A lot of things have happened out of COVID, the virtual seminar series being one,” said Sharon McGarry. “They’ve been really very well received … COVID made us a little bit more adaptable to that sort of thing.” Still, regardless of whether interactions are digital or in-person, an emphasis on customer service remains, regardless of whether the person is mourned by a few or by millions. Over the past 100 years, Hulse, Playfair & McGarry has overseen the final arrangements for many notable citizens, including multiple prime ministers.  “There’s so many people that come here that we may have looked after their grandfather or their parents and to do the job, to do our work well and to do it right, you can rely on people coming back to you again and again,” Flood said.  Of course, most clients would rather be anywhere else but at a funeral home, which cannot “take away the sadness of what people endure through grief,” Flood admitted. “The older I get, the more I appreciate being at the front door to greet people coming in, because you know more people,” said Sharon McGarry. “It’s not a spot that people want to come to, but to see a familiar face, I think, makes them feel more comfortable.”  “I feel like my life has been expanded so much by being able to talk to people about their loved one’s life,” said Patrick McGarry. “That is a real privilege. It’s a shame that there are so many interesting people’s lives which are not shared until they’ve passed away.”