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The Triangle’s only aquamation provider has added a Chapel Hill address, a short walk from the Carrboro cemetery where the idea for the business began.
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, United States – September 8, 2026 – Endswell Funeral Home has opened a third location at 601 W. Rosemary St., Unit 109, in Chapel Hill, extending a business that began in Hillsborough in 2022 and has since become the only provider of aquamation in North Carolina’s Triangle region.
The new address sits at the western end of the West Rosemary Street corridor, close to the Chapel Hill and Carrboro line. Endswell Funeral Home was founded by Hunter Beattie and Veronica Penn Beattie, a husband and wife team who launched the practice in Hillsborough, North Carolina, offering aquamation, green and natural burial, traditional cremation and traditional burial to families across Orange and Durham counties.
The idea arrived in early 2022, when Hunter Beattie was sitting near a Carrboro cemetery and read about Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who had chosen aquamation rather than flame cremation. Neither he nor Veronica Penn Beattie had worked in the funeral industry. Their backgrounds were in the nonprofit and renewable energy sectors. Within two weeks they had decided to build the business anyway.
Four years later, the Chapel Hill opening brings the company back to within a few blocks of where that decision was made.
“The idea for this whole thing came to me a few streets from where we just signed a lease,” said Hunter Beattie, co-owner and co-founder of Endswell Funeral Home. “We were two people with no funeral experience and a strong opinion that families deserved better options. Opening in Chapel Hill is not a victory lap. It means a family in Carrboro or Chapel Hill who wants a gentler option no longer has to drive to Hillsborough to sit down and talk about it.”
What the Chapel Hill Location Offers
The Chapel Hill building is a standalone, staffed location with its own signage. It offers the same range of services as the Hillsborough and Durham sites. Families can arrange aquamation, green or natural burial using biodegradable caskets and shrouds, traditional cremation, and traditional burial. Preplanning appointments, at-need arrangements and memorial services are all handled from the new address.
Aquamation, also called alkaline hydrolysis or water cremation, uses water and alkaline chemistry rather than flame. According to Hunter Beattie, the process does not release toxic or carcinogenic gases and produces no carbon emissions. Endswell remains the only facility in the Triangle that offers it.
Why the Address Matters
Until now, families in Chapel Hill and Carrboro seeking aquamation or a natural burial arranged it through the Hillsborough location roughly twelve miles away. The Rosemary Street address gives those families a place to meet in their own town, in what is often the worst week of their lives.
Chapel Hill and Carrboro have also proved a receptive market. Endswell assists with the majority of natural burials at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery, a conservation burial ground that began operating in 2022, the same year the funeral home opened.
The company has continued to invest in the environmental side of the practice. Endswell received a grant through the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program covering half the cost of a 150,000 dollar solar installation, work intended to bring its aquamation and green burial services to carbon neutral operation.
“People assume choosing something greener means choosing something colder, or more complicated, or more expensive,” said Veronica Penn Beattie, co-owner and co-founder. “It is none of those things. What families tell us, over and over, is that it simply felt right. Being able to offer that a few minutes from someone’s home instead of half an hour away changes who gets to make that choice.”
Three Locations, Shared Staff
The Chapel Hill location does not replace either existing site. Endswell continues to operate from 407 Meadowlands Dr. in Hillsborough and 116 Crutchfield St. in Durham, and staff and capacity are shared across all three.
The company publishes its general price list openly and hosts community Death Cafe gatherings, both unusual practices in an industry where pricing is often supplied only on request.
Availability
The Chapel Hill location at 601 W. Rosemary St., Unit 109, is open for at-need arrangements and preplanning appointments. Endswell Funeral Home serves families throughout Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Durham, Mebane, Pittsboro and the wider Triangle, and can be reached at any hour.
About Endswell Funeral Home
Endswell Funeral Home is a modern funeral home based in North Carolina, United States, founded in 2022 by Hunter Beattie and Veronica Penn Beattie. It offers aquamation, green and natural burial, cremation and traditional funeral services, and is the only provider of aquamation in the Triangle region. The company operates locations in Hillsborough, Durham and Chapel Hill.
