City Selling Former Funeral Home
Health-focused business will take over.
912 W. Burleigh St. Photo from the Department of City Development property listing.
A former funeral home will see new life as a place for serving the living.
Zakkiyya Liphford intends to purchase and renovate the two-story, 2,625-square-foot property at 912 W. Burleigh St.
“I would like to assist people according to their needs, which is something I have been doing throughout my life. In other words, if they fall short, I pick up the difference,” Liphford said while briefing the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee on her plans on Feb. 24.
She said she envisions using the home as a base for health support, errands and consulting services.
The city acquired the home via property tax foreclosure in 2022. It is located in the Borchert Field neighborhood.
It includes a commercial space on the first floor, long a funeral parlor, and an apartment on the upper level.
Liphford, through Z Luxury Living LLC, is to pay $20,000 for the property. The Department of City Development previously listed it for $30,000. Liphford, according to a DCD report, is expected to invest $80,000 renovating the property.
The funeral home was most recently operated as Hutcherson Jeffries & Sons Funeral Home. But the owner and operator, Hattie Jeffries (nee Hutcherson), died in 2006. Her husband, James J. Jeffries, died in 2021. City property records indicate the city foreclosed on Yamarr Runnels, a licensed funeral director and embalmer in Illinois, in 2021. Assessment records don’t show Runnels purchasing the home from the Jeffries.
Decades earlier, the facility was known as the Watkins Funeral Home and Pixley Chapel or Pixley Funeral Home before that. The Hutcherson name first appears in historic newspaper listings in 1991.
It was built in 1904 and appears to have spent the first decades of its existence as simply a residence.
Area Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs endorsed the sale when it was before the zoning committee. The full council endorsed the sale on March 3.
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