Our History

Chapel of Flowers Funeral Home proudly offers burial & cremation services for families in San Jose and Santa Clara County, CA

In the late 1800's, here in San Jose, California on Santa Clara Street, Woodrow Undertaking Parlor established one of the first successful funeral homes in the city of San Jose. 30 years later in 1926, Woodrow's Undertaking was purchased by two partners, Dismo Denegri and William Geoffroy.

After the purchase of Woodrow's, Denegri and Geoffroy renamed the Undertaking Parlor to "Little Chapel of Flowers" and moved the funeral home Santa Clara Street, to the corner of 2nd and San Carlos Streets, in downtown San Jose. Eventually, Denegri and Geoffroy accepted Gerald Origlia as another partner. They operated the new funeral home for 14 years at the corner of 2nd and San Carlos Streets in San Jose.

Ultimately, in the 1930's, they purchased the property and Victorian Home at 900 S. 2nd Street from the Bisceglia family.  The home was then remodeled into a funeral home in 1938 and opened for business as Chapel of Flowers: Denegri-Geoffroy-Origlia in September 1940.

In 1969, the business was sold to Robert Vatuone (Mary Denegri's nephew) and James Viso. At the time, Ralph O. Salmon Jr. was hired to manage the funeral home. In1971, Ralph and his wife Sue, purchased the business, buying out all partners and holdings.

After 35 years of running Chapel of Flowers as a successful business, Ralph sadly passed away following years of battling diabetes and heart disease. Since then, Ralph's wife Sue and his daughter Susan have successfully maintained this family business.

Chapel of Flowers has received many more accolades throughout the years for its outstanding, compassionate and friendly service to countless families throughout the South Bay. Sue and Susan diligently maintained Chapel of Flowers as a FAMILY BUSINESS, resisting the easy and more expensive move toward a corporatism. Keeping their business, family owned and run, allows them to primarily focus on compassion and caring directly for bereaved families. Chapel of Flowers is renowned in the Bay Area for the comfort, kindness and empathy given to everyone who is suffering the loss of a loved on.