Hudson Valley Monuments: New Ownership, Same Commitment

Cortlandt Manor, NY – August 4, 2025 — A longstanding provider of memorials in northern Westchester County is entering a new chapter. Hillside Memorials—long known to funeral homes and cemeteries across the Hudson Valley—has rebranded as Hudson Valley Monuments following a change in ownership and the introduction of expanded support services for the profession.

Located directly across from Hillside Cemetery in Cortlandt Manor, Hudson Valley Monuments is now part of the Travis Monument Group, a multi-location memorial company with deep roots in the Tri-State area. The transition brings new investment, added technical capabilities, and consistent service backed by more than 100 years of industry heritage.

“Our team works closely with funeral directors, cemeterians, and municipal managers to deliver personalized, on-time memorials,” said Anthony Minozzi, Chief Operating Officer and fourth-generation memorialist. “We understand the operational demands of your work and see ourselves as an extension of your care to the families you serve.”

A Familiar Legacy, A Trusted Hand-Off

Originally founded in 1922 as George W. West Monuments and operating for decades under the Hanner family as Hillside Memorials, the firm has long been a resource for timely, respectful memorial design and installation. Upon her retirement in early 2025, Lorraine Hanner entrusted the business to the Minozzi family, long-time professional colleagues and leaders in regional memorial service.

Now operating as Hudson Valley Monuments, the company remains focused on supporting the operational needs of cemeteries and funeral homes while maintaining high-touch service for at-need and pre-need families.

Services That Support Funeral and Cemetery Partners

Hudson Valley Monuments has expanded its offerings to better align with the needs of deathcare professionals, municipalities, and religious institutions:

• Design-to-Approval Turnaround – Fast, collaborative memorial design using digital renderings, with family approvals coordinated when needed.
• Installation Coordination – Direct coordination with cemetery or funeral home staff to ensure placement and delivery are handled seamlessly.
• Historic and Civic Restoration – Stone cleaning, resetting, and conservation services for aging or damaged municipal and private markers.
• Custom and Oversized Memorial Solutions – Markers, headstones, columbaria, cremation memorials, and mausoleums tailored to site-specific needs.
• Showroom Experience (Coming Soon) – A new showroom for in-person design consults, reducing back-and-forth and simplifying family engagement.

Part of the Travis Monument Group

Hudson Valley Monuments is one of five companies within the Travis Monument Group, which provides regional scale and shared operational resources while retaining localized service:

• Travis Monuments – Nyack, NY
• Putnam County Monuments – Carmel, NY
• Orange County Monuments – Washingtonville, NY
• Rovelli Monuments – Danbury, CT
• Hudson Valley Monuments – Cortlandt Manor, NY

Each location is staffed by experienced artisans, project managers, and support professionals who understand the unique demands of funeral and cemetery service.

“This is more than a name change,” added Minozzi. “It’s a renewed commitment to serving as a reliable partner to funeral homes and cemeteries—delivering what’s needed, when it’s needed, with professionalism and care.”

When you are in a competitive business you need to acquire customers and then find a way to make sure that those customers are “commited to you”.  Many times acquiring the customer might be the easy part, but making sure the customer stays commited to you and loyal to your brand can be difficult over time.

Potential customers whom funeral homes have acquired, simply by being that customer’s choice, for future business can be extremely susceptible to leaving that commitment to your firm between the time they decide to use your firm and when the may actually need your services.  They might see a bad review, hear a negative comment, or simply be seated at a funeral you are conducting in a seat they prefer not to sit in. . . . potential clientele can be funny that way.

In my view, that potential client is very susceptible to changing Death Care options until they have some type of commitment on their part to your firm.  Probably the best form of commitment for retention is a funded pre-arrangement.  That’s why funeral homes go to such great efforts to put them in place — they are a large positive predictor of turning customers by choice into commited customers.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

But are there other ways to strengthen that commitment for people who have your firm as number one in their mind but are not ready or able to financially pre-arrange?  In politics when the candidates are going through the primary election season you will see them all announce websites to go to where you can make a donation. . . . and the amount doesn’t matter.  Candidates know, that once they have a financial commitment from a voter — even if it is for only $5 — they have a commited supporter. . . . .and commited supporters become “Brand Advocates” so there is a great deal of value in having them.

Death Care, and especially direct cremation companies, have a plethora of online operators where one can register their future wishes.  Most of these websites will take and store that information for a future “at need” death at no cost to the consumer.

My question for you to ponder this weekend is, “Like in politics, would a minimum charge of $10 with the online arrangment result in a “stronger commitment” from the potential customer and a greater liklihood that they will become a brand ambassador and psychologically commited to your firm, than simply allowing them to sign up for no cost?”

In the pre-internet days of America’s cremation preference build-up (1975-2000), there are some great success stories of firms that did just that by allowing consumers to be invested or commited to a cremation provider for a $25 lifetime fee.  In many cases these consumers were told that the initial $25 fee would be taken off the price at the time of cremation. . .some even allowed a $50 credit “at need” for the $25 lifetime fee.

Funeral Director Daily take:  In discussions with firms who did this type of marketing in the past I found it amazing how consumers became incredible brand ambassadors for cremation over traditional burial once they had this psychological commitment. . . and now I wonder if the populace will once again make a “commited” move — this time embracing and advocating for direct cremation with no services or do-it-yourself services rather than cremation with services as the most popular form of human disposition services.

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