Green's Funeral Home -- most recently Pranaam India -- is demolished.

Before

After

Today (July 18, 2016) a well-known building in Redmond was demolished.  Most long-time residents of Redmond attended funeral services in the Chapel of the Valley, also known as Green’s Funeral Home.  It opened in 1961.  In more recent years it had church services and most recently became Pranaam India.  The entire block where this building was located has been planned for development with the project name:  Redmond Triangle.  The project includes combining 4 parcels and a new 6-story mixed-use building with 2 levels of below grade parking.  There are approximately 191 residential units, 7 live-work units, 219 parking stalls and 5,400 feet of retail planned.

Photos and report by Cheryl Magnuson

Some History:  Sunset Hills Memorial Park and Funeral Home has a rich history of serving all of Seattle's Eastside families since 1936. Chester and Agnes Green, together with their family, founded Green Funeral Homes and continued to operate four locations in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and North Bend until 1996. Through a merger, three of the original four funeral homes were consolidated into our current location at Sunset Hills, which was built in 1972.

Chester “Chet” Green was raised in a single-parent household. Leaving home at the age of 13, he assisted in providing for the family and continued to work while receiving his education. Mrs. Green, an emigrant from Sweden, lost her mother at the age of seven and was placed in a foster home. She later became a certified school teacher. She and Mr. Green met and later married in 1928.  Read More >>
During this time, Mr. Green met Jack Pheasant, who owned the Pheasant Wiggen Funeral Home in Ballard, where Mr. Green worked as an apprentice and learned the funeral business. In 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Green purchased the Colonial House in Kirkland and opened Green Funeral Home to the Eastside, where they worked together serving the local families while raising four children: Patricia, Michael, Conrad and Dennis. They expanded to Bellevue in 1948 with The Chapel of Flowers, and then into Redmond by opening The Chapel of the Valley in 1961. In 1949, just prior to the Lake Hills development, Mr. Green purchased 150 acres in Bellevue. The Sunset Hills Memorial Park opened in 1950 to fulfill their vision of providing the finest facility and quality service in the area. Mr. Green built it on the premise “that every person, no matter what their economic station in life might be, is worthy of the complete and considerate attention and provision of all the personnel, facility and equipment the business has to provide.” The Greens’ son, Michael, worked alongside his parents and continued to successfully fulfill his parents' vision while managing the funeral homes from 1961 to 1974. During this time, Mr. Green died in January 1963, and in 1972, Sunset Hills Funeral Home was constructed.

During the 1990s the cemetery became a member of the Dignity Memorial® network. In 2002, Mrs. Green passed away, able to fully realize the impact that she and her husband had on the many families throughout the community. In 2004, Sunset Hills Funeral Home became a member of the Dignity Memorial network, ensuring that the same caring and professional service that the Green family was known for would continue to be provided to families now and in the future.