Columbia Funeral Home Greeted Visitors With the Dead for More Than a Century

For decades, Columbia Funeral Home & Crematory greeted drivers, passengers, pedestrians as they entered Columbia City. The neon sign, “Columbia Funeral Home,” fixed on the side of the roof faced Rainier Avenue, stood out against the old building, built in 1906, which was by all standards unremarkable: barrel tiles, dormers, veranda, clapboard siding. The sign, on the other hand, was shamelessly splashy and, at night, it seemed to float in the darkened air.The sign was everything