One of the more curious places in Houston to celebrate Halloween has to be the National Museum of Funeral History. What started as a collection of hearses by a local funeral director has grown into a fascinating collection of vehicles, coffins and stories told by morticians and funeral directors. I visited it in 2010 and apologise for the poor quality of the photographs, in those days cameras on phones weren’t quite what they are today.
The most fascinating exhibit was ‘just’ a ring binder with 4 inches of sheets of paper in it. On those sheets of paper was the full schedule of President Reagan’s funeral in 2004. It lists who was sitting in which car, which order each car was leaving each location and at what time it was expected to pass certain landmarks on route. For someone unfamiliar with the behind the scenes of state occasions I was amazed by the level of detailed planning.
This is not a museum that will keep you occupied for a whole day, however the exhibits on papal funerals and insight into Japanese traditions give insight into a cultural construct which is often difficult to ask questions about without appearing rude.
travel tales 
This is awesome! Check out the places I go in Houston:
http://www.housticated.com
Thanks – there are a more Houston and surrounding area posts in the making – keep checking back!
Tash, I never heard of this place and I have lived in Houston a long time. Housticated visited me yesterday, first I heard of her. It is amazing how much of your home town gets missed. I wanted to go out and shoot but I can’t find a paddle.
I’m glad to have introduced you to something new in your home town. It’s one of the newly articulated goals I have for my blog: point out the beautiful and quirky to those who pass it every day and encourage visitors to step off the beaten tourist path for a day or so.
There is a local event photographer on Facebook (and a friend in real life) who posts odd photos of hard to recognize public places in town and asks people to guess what they are. Roswitha Volger, look for her.