Business: Peter Troost Monument Co.
Address: 705 S. Washington St., Naperville
Phone/website: 630-355-0105; www.troost.com
Branch Manager: Victoria Wilson, 59, of Naperville; Regional Manager: Eric Sommerfield, 55, of Huntley
Years in business: 43 in Naperville; 136 overall
What does your business do? “Our primary business obviously is headstones, tombstones, memorials. But we also do lettering, engraving, general maintenance on foundations and memorials. … We do community projects. A lot of work with veterans’ groups. Historical markers,” Sommerfield said.
What’s the background? “Peter Troost founded the company in 1889 in Chicago. … Lisa Troost now runs the company. She’s fifth generation. Frank Troost, her dad, was fourth generation. He’s retired about four times, still in the office every single day. He’s (in his) mid 80s,” Sommerfield said.
Where is your main office? “In Hillside on Roosevelt Road. We have 15 (offices) in Illinois, two in Iowa, eight in Wisconsin and one in Florida because Frank goes to Miami every winter. Frank got bored. A memorial company was for sale. He bought it. … It does very well,” Sommerfield said.
Is it still hammer and chisel? “In our manufacturing facility in Hillside, a lot of it is automated. The sandblasting carves into the granite. We still do a lot of handwork. The sides of a monument that look rough, that’s done by hand. … A very interesting business,” Sommerfield said.
What happens when someone walks in? “I ask them which cemetery they’re working with. … That can dictate what they can get. Some cemeteries you can only do a small flush marker. Those are lawn level. … Other cemeteries allow above ground. .,.. Some (people) are confused, some know exactly what they want. It depends where they are in their own (grieving) process. … I had a gentleman yesterday, his wife passed away in 2015, and he was getting a marker,” Wilson said.
“That’s one thing that surprised me about this industry. Someone passes away. They do the visitation, the funeral, the burial. The memorial is the last thing that gets done. It may be five, 10 years later,” Sommerfield said.
How do you get stones in two shades? “When you polish it, you get the deep dark color to come out. The part that is lighter, all we’ve done is remove the polish. The stone will look gray at the start. When you polish it, it will look black,” Sommerfield said.
What are most monuments made of? “Granite. We use granite because it’s not going to erode like marble. We still occasionally use marble, but the customer has to request it. … Marble is expensive. If you take a couple laps around the cemetery, you’ll see the lettering eroding (on marble). That’s why we use granite. We’re meaning to put them up there for eternity. We could come back 500 years from now. It will be dirty. Maybe it fell over. But we can clean it up (and read it),” Sommerfield said.
“Different colors come from different places around the world. … The blue granite only comes from Norway and Sweden. That very gray comes from Vermont,” Somerfield said.
What about pricing? “You can get a memorial for $900. And we’ve sold memorials for up to $300,000. We’ve done mausoleums, $1.2 million to $2 million. We do five to 10 in a good year,” Sommerfield said.
What challenges do you face? “Full body burials aren’t happening that much anymore. People want to be cremated. … The bulk of what we do is we see multiple cremains (cremated remains) being buried in a single grave,” Sommerfield said.
What should people know? “Everybody wants to be buried under a big oak tree. That is the worst. You get the sap. Dirt from the tree. You get aphid poop on your memorial,” Sommerfield said.
Is business good? “We have northern Illinois covered but we ship monuments to all 50 states. The hard part is getting them installed. Anything that sits above ground has to sit on a cement foundation,” Sommerfield said.
Any favorite stories? “One of the first families I worked with, Dad had passed away. It was Mom and four adult daughters. All very adamant about what they wanted. We worked with them. Got the monument installed. One day, I was walking through the lobby of our Hillside office and Mom came walking in. She didn’t say anything. She just walked up and gave me a hug. … It’s a very rewarding industry,” Sommerfield said.
What do you like about your job? “The people. Helping them through,” Wilson said.
What’s your advice for someone starting a business? “Learn everything you can about the industry before you start. … Get involved in the community,” Sommerfield said.
“Research your location too,” Wilson said.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun. If you know of a business you’d like to see profiled in Down to Business, contact him at metschmsfl@yahoo.com.
