St. John Memorials

St. John Memorials started its roots in 1929 in Moravia, NY.

95 years and 3 generations later it carries on the tradition of a full-service monument business supplying families with quality handcrafted memorials throughout Central New York.

Ty and Doreen St John, owners of St. John Memorials have been running the family business since 1993, after Ty grew up in business and was taught the “old school way “by his grandfather, Howard who started the business in Moravia back in 1929.

Together they have combined old school and modern technology to create lasting family memorials and civic monuments while still being a full-service company, engraving the monuments we sell.

Most monument companies don’t do any of the hands-on work anymore, Ty explains, they are mainly a middleman, selling you the monument and ordering it from a manufacture already lettered and designed. It comes in a box and the monument company delivers it to the location. The family has no recourse if something is wrong, without waiting months for a replacement if at all.

Another major flaw in having it done at a factory, is there are many monument companies with orders in and it could take months to get your memorial and they charge per design and letter so there is no set price.  When we sell a memorial and tell you the price, it includes all the lettering, design work and delivery, no hidden charges, we feel that is the fair way to do business, the family shouldn’t be charged because their last name is three letters longer than the average.

We design and engrave what we sell, along with offering on-site lettering such as a final date, in cemeteries across Central New York. We have a large display at our main office in Scipio, and after looking for some time, found a perfect location in Cortland to open a sales office to service our families in our eastern service area at 1027 NY-13 (Tompkins St.) Cortland, right on the corner of Munson and Route 13.

Since 2020, Covid-19 has presented many problems for everyone, and the memorial business is no exception. We have had supply issues with getting the granite, stencils and glues to do the engraving just to name a few. Manufacturing in Vermont at the granite quarries are at an all-time backlog and for us to just get the blank granite has slowed considerably. I can’t imagine a family waiting 8 months or longer to get their family memorial engraved at the factory.

I am in constant communication with my wholesalers and have been to Vermont numerous times last year buying inventory to stay well stocked on our most popular monuments. I am proud to say that we have the largest display in the area and this year will be no exception, in fact we will be expanding our Cortland office display this Spring,  with some new granite colors that are quite appealing.

We are open by appointment throughout the winter and invite you to call so we can set up an appointment at your convenience to discuss your needs for Spring delivery. This assures that we have plenty of time to have the granite completed to be delivered when the weather permits.

Depending on weather conditions we will be opening for regular business hours in Mid-March from 10-4 weekdays and 9-1pm on Saturday.

We do get very busy as better weather approaches and we do have a cut-off date for Memorial Day orders. Our main office is 315-364-8266 to arrange an appointment in Scipio or at our Cortland office.