Dead house

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The dead house next to Garpenberg church (Church of Sweden) Alla helgons dag Garpenberg 2015, bisattningshuset 01.jpg
The dead house next to Garpenberg church (Church of Sweden)
Mortuary refrigerator in the dead house next to Garpenberg church. Alla helgons dag Garpenberg 2015, bisattningshuset 03.jpg
Mortuary refrigerator in the dead house next to Garpenberg church.

A dead house, deadhouse or mort house, is a structure used for the temporary storage of a human corpse before burial or transportation, usually located within or near a cemetery. Such edifices were more common before the mid-20th century in areas with cold winter climates, before which time grave excavation during the winter was either difficult or impossible.

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Dead houses were common to some religious groups, such as the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) [1] The "Corpse House" still exists in the Moravian Settlement of Lititz, Pennsylvania; those in Nazareth, Bethlehem and Winston-Salem, North Carolina no longer exist. Other corpse houses exist in Moravian Congregations in Europe, in Herrnhut, Koenigsfeld, Neuwied, Zeist, Kleinwelka and Niesky. These Corpse Houses remain in use for the keeping of members' bodies until the time for burial. Like the seating in the sanctuary and the burial fields in the God's Acre, they are segregated by gender, i.e. "Brethren's Side" and "Sisters' Side". Religious and medical concerns about accurate diagnosis of death were also reasons that all burials were delayed for at least three days for Moravians, not solely cold conditions.

The octagonal deadhouses of Ontario

The octagonal deadhouse in Aurora, Ontario in Canada The Dead House.jpg
The octagonal deadhouse in Aurora, Ontario in Canada

Unique to south-central Ontario, Canada were octagonal deadhouses built in the mid-to-late-19th century. [2] The design of these structures is thought to be inspired by a fad in the United States, promoted by Orson Squire Fowler, [3] of erecting octagonal buildings in the early 19th century. These deadhouses were built in areas bordering Yonge Street north of Toronto, primarily in York County (now the Regional Municipality of York). At least three are classified as heritage sites, in Aurora, [4] King, and Richmond Hill. [2]

See also

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Receiving vault

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Udny Mort House

Udny Mort House is a category B listed building in the old kirkyard at Udny Green, Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland, built in 1832. It housed corpses until they started to decompose, so their graves would not be desecrated by resurrectionists and body-snatchers digging them up to sell the cadavers to medical colleges for dissection. Bodies were permitted to be stored for up to three months before burial. The circular mort house was designed with a revolving platform and double doors. After the passage into law of the Anatomy Act 1832 Udny Mort House gradually fell into disuse; minutes of the committee responsible for its operation cease in about July 1836.

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Morthouse

A Morthouse, or Deadhouse, was a specialised secure building usually located in a churchyard where bodies were temporarily interred before a formal funeral took place. These buildings date back to the time when bodysnatchers or resurrectionists frequently illegally exhumed dead bodies that were then sold for dissection as part of human anatomy training at universities, etc. Morthouses were alternatives to mortsafes, watch houses, watch towers, etc.

References

  1. Jarvis, Dale. The Moravian Dead Houses of Labrador, Canada in "Communal Societies" 21 (2001): 61-77.
  2. 1 2 "Cemetery Designation". Ontario Ministry of Culture. Archived from the original on 2007-06-16. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
  3. "Richmond Hill Presbyterian Church Cemetery". Historic Cemeteries of South York Region. Richmond Hill Public Library . Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  4. "The Dead House". Canada's Historic Places. Parks Canada. Archived from the original on 2013-12-07. Retrieved 2012-09-01.