Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side One: In 1915, licensed embalmer Carl E. Carlson opened his undertaking establishment in a rented building on Massachusetts Avenue and 11th Street. In 1918, he purchased the building belonging to St. Cloud’s first physician, Dr. C.S. Cooper, next to the Grand Army of the Republic building on Massachusetts Avenue. Carlson remodeled it into a then state-of-the-art undertaking establishment. A November 14, 1918, newspaper ad for Carlson & Newton Funeral Directors and Embalmers indicated a new partner, John Newton. He departed the next year, and was replaced by George Barber, one of the original Union Army veterans who settled in St. Cloud. Dana Eiselstein and his brother William partnered in 1919 to purchase the Carlson Funeral Home. Barber, a city councilman at that time, remained with the new firm, renamed the Eiselstein Brothers. In 1925, the firm hired architects Isabel Roberts, an associate of Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ida Annah Ryan to design a new chapel. The building’s exterior was remodeled and given a pseudo-Spanish style stucco finish. The first all-female architectural firm in Orlando, Ryan & Roberts designed many other buildings in St. Cloud in what became a local style known as “Spaniflora.” Side Two: In 1928, William Eiselstein married Susie Fisk. Her nephew, Robert A. "Bob" Fisk, graduated from Cincinnati College of Embalming in 1942, and then served during World War II with the U.S. Naval Hospital Corps. In 1949, Bob Fisk became the funeral director for the Eiselsteins’ funeral home. In June that same year, Dana Eiselstein died suddenly; William passed in 1951 and Bob became the funeral home’s manager. In 1958, William C. Journigan purchased interest in the business from Dana’s wife, Louise Eiselstein, and the name was changed to the Eiselstein, Fisk & Journigan Funeral Home. After Susie Eiselstein’s death in 1964, the name changed again to Fisk & Journigan. In 1972, the old chapel was converted into office space and the exterior was given a colonial red brick finish. Bob's son, Bill Fisk, joined as funeral director in the 1970s. Bob Fisk became the sole owner of the company, renamed Fisk Funeral Home, in 1983. Bob served as an unofficial local historian for St. Cloud and co-authored the 2002 book, Images of St. Cloud. For most of the 20th century, Fisk Funeral Home was the only funeral home operating in St. Cloud.