DeVol Funeral Home sold its Glover Park building at 2222 Wisconsin Avenue on February 7th 2025, and likely will turn over operations of the business to the buyer in the near future. The buyer, SCI District of Columbia Funeral Services LLC, is owned by Service Corporation International, a nationwide provider of funeral and cemetery services. DeVol Funeral Home has been in operation through three generations of the DeVol family in Glover Park since 1947. SCI purchased the 9,000 square foot building for $4.8 million cash. DeVol had attempted a sale way back in 1999 for $1.75 mil. but there were no takers – seems it was a good decision to wait it out.
Harry D. DeVol – who went by H. Don DeVol – bought half the current space at 2224 Wisconsin Avenue in 1947 from Frank and Elizabeth Cogswell, moved the business in, and renamed his Clement Funeral Home company after himself. He and his wife Regina borrowed a whopping $16,400 through a bond and a note to finance the purchase. In 1957, the couple bought the neighboring building at 2222 Wisconsin Ave from Fred and Josephine Neam for $25,000 and combined the two properties into the current DeVol Funeral Home space. H. Don’s sons Robert, John and James joined him in the family business around that time. Currently, grandson Robert DeVol (president), along with his brother Kevin, operate the business from the DC location as well as a Gaithersburg Maryland location opened in 1988, which presumably will remain open.
An interesting side note: prior to entering the funeral services business, H. Don was the assistant secretary to Senator Huey Long of Louisiana up until Long’s assassination in 1935. Long was a fiery left-wing democrat who supported massive federal spending and was an isolationist. He parted ways with FDR prior to an anticipated presidential bid for 1936, but was assassinated by an ear, nose and throat doctor named Carl Weiss. Weiss was the son-in-law of Judge Benjamin Pavy, who had conflicts with Long and supposedly lost his constituency through Long’s gerrymandering. As Long lay dying in the hospital, H. Don DeVol was instructed to “carry on” with his duties as the senator’s secretary. Had the senator not been assassinated and continued on to a successful bid against FDR going into World War II, the world might have been a very different place today. Who knows, maybe H. Don would have stuck with Long on the campaign trail and never entered the funeral business at all. Rumors and conspiracy theories flew following Huey Long’s death, including the theory that he was not killed by Weiss, but by the ricochet of the bullets of the senator’s body guards. Records from the Bureau of Criminal Investigations exist somewhere in the bowels of the National Archives….
From the Collection on Huey Long at Special Collections, LSU Libraries:
H. Donald DeVol was the personal secretary of Huey Long from 1932 until Long’s death in 1935. Prior to his employment with Senator Long, DeVol worked for Shell Oil Company, starting as a station attendant and later in bookkeeping. DeVol left Shell Oil Company in order to avoid a transfer to Baltimore, Maryland. DeVol sought out Huey Long at his Senate office in Washington and waited to speak with him about a job. Once hired, DeVol did mostly government work for Senator Long but did not handle Long’s Louisiana business affairs. DeVol also supervised the secretarial staff but only those who worked in Washington. After Long’s death, DeVol worked with the National Democratic Committee campaign for Roosevelt’s reelection in 1936. DeVol later worked with a funeral director and in 1947 he founded DeVol Funeral Home in Washington, D.C.
The above article might not be legible, so it is attached as a PDF below as well.
Note: building photo and H. Don DeVol photo and a few dates/details of the ownership history are from the Devol Funeral Home website.
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