calvario funeral home

Demolition is underway this morning on the 88-year-old warehouse connected to Calvario Funeral Home on West Davis at Madison.

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IMG_0011Funeral director Lupe Garcia, who owns the Calvario building, the warehouse and an adjacent parking lot, decided to tear down the warehouse, but the funeral home will stay. The two buildings, Calvario and the warehouse, look like they are one building, but they’ve always housed two separate businesses, Garcia says.

Garcia has leased the parking lot and the site of the 9,800-square-foot warehouse to the owners of nearby restaurants 303 Bar and Grill and Pier 247. Garcia says they are planning to build a new restaurant on the existing parking lot and use the warehouse site as a parking lot.

The Calvario building was built in 1927 for Rene Cox Funeral Home. It later was home to Campbell Funeral Home after that business, famous for burying outlaw Bonnie Parker, had to move for the construction of Interstate 45. Garcia and his wife, Yolanda, bought it in 1981 and lived in the second-floor apartment for 21 years following.

calvario funeral homePecan Deluxe, a candy manufacturer, operated in the warehouse from about 1960 until 1994 when, having outgrown the space, moved to their own building in the Lone Star industrial park off of Interstate 30. After that, Yolanda Garcia ran a flower shop there for a few years, but the space has been empty for about eight years, Garcia says.

The warehouse building is in bad shape, Garcia says. And a shortage of parking is the No. 1 problem for Bishop Arts restaurants and retailers, he says.

“Oak Cliff has got to change. We need parking,” he says. “Sometimes you have to do what’s necessary.”

Garcia pulled a demolition permit on Oct. 23, before an ordinance that would’ve required a waiting period and review took effect.