Custom headstones in Troy, Ohio

A Troy monument company, just down County Road 25A

Our headstone company keeps no storefront in Troy itself. Our nearest office sits a short way south in Tipp City, and (937) 703-4400 rings straight through to it.

Plenty of Troy families finish without ever walking through our door. We talk through the person, the cemetery and the budget by phone or text. A drawing follows to your phone or inbox, and nothing is owed until you approve it.

From there, our family does the rest. We engrave the stone and set it at the cemetery with our own hands. Granite stocked in Ohio keeps many memorials to about four weeks, though Riverside runs on the city's foundation calendar.

Riverside Cemetery and the City of Troy's rules

Riverside Cemetery, at 101 Riverside Drive, is owned and run by the City of Troy. It holds nine memorials from our portfolio, our largest group at a single cemetery. The city publishes its rules and its fee schedule, and we work from both on every Riverside order.

Who pours the foundation

At Riverside, a city crew pours the foundation beneath every monument and every bench. Monument companies like ours do not pour them, and Troy sets a separate fee for each one.

Requests join a queue in the order they reach the city. Burials and mowing take priority, and weather has its say, so Troy will not commit to a finish date. If the ground over a recent burial has not yet settled, the crew waits.

So we explain the foundation step on our very first call. The earlier it is on the city's list, the sooner your stone can go up. Your memorial is carved while the city works through that list.

Sizes, margins and how many markers

Riverside sizes each foundation to leave 4 inches of concrete showing on all four sides of the stone. Under our Mountain Rose serp-top there, a 36 by 12 inch base calls for a foundation 44 inches long and 20 inches deep. We measure every Riverside design against that margin.

One grave may carry up to six markers: a headstone, a footstone and flush markers. A monument may rise as high as 20 feet, so height rarely limits an upright here. Most markers beyond the main monument go in flush with the grass.

On a family lot, Troy allows one family monument at the head of the graves, with a single marker at the foot of each. When cremated remains are buried above a casket in the same grave, their marker sits flush, with no edging or decoration around it.

Grave decorations, lights and plantings

Artificial flowers belong in a saddle, vase or urn made for the purpose. Solar LED lights and candles are welcome, either in the planted bed or mounted on the stone. A candle with a live flame is not allowed, even inside a closed lantern.

Shrubs beside a monument must be a kind the city's ordinance permits. Beds need real landscape edging, no more than an inch above the turf, and on a full-width stone it cannot run past the ends of the foundation. A tree needs the superintendent's approval before planting.

Those rules are why so many Riverside families ask for vases. Four of the five uprights we have set there carry a pair of 4 inch turned granite vases. Fresh or artificial, the flowers then have a home the city accepts.

Columbariums and niche vases

We have placed two 2-niche columbariums at Riverside, one in Newbury Grey and one in Bahama Blue. Both are rooftop designs, 32 by 17 by 38 inches, each with a turned granite vase. The city lets only its own staff, or a monument company it has hired, fit bud vases to niches.

Nine Riverside memorials, one by one

A Black Ultimate teardrop stands 32 inches tall on a 40 inch base, with white lettering and an oval color photo. The family's own words about it are among the reviews below.

Two companion serp-tops show how much a double headstone can vary. One is Heritage Grey, 36 inches wide on a 48 inch base, with deep-cut lettering. The other is Black Ultimate, 30 inches wide and 36 tall, lettered in white.

Three single memorials stand nearby. A Georgia Grey slant measures 24 inches across, and a Bahama Blue upright is cut in a French curve with chamfered corners. A Mountain Rose serp-top rounds out the group.

There is a bench too, in Black Ultimate, with a flat 36 inch seat on two straight legs. Some time later, the family asked us back to engrave another name on it.

Troy's township and country cemeteries

Not every Troy family is buried at Riverside. Hart, Lewis and Mann are among the small country cemeteries around town, and most post no rules at all. We ask whoever keeps the grounds for the current rules before we sketch anything.

At Casstown Cemetery we set a Black Ultimate companion upright, with a picture laser-etched into its face. At Pleasant Hill Cemetery we placed a 24 by 12 inch flat marker in the same black granite, with an oval color photo.

Up in Piqua, Forest Hill has its own limits. A grave there gets just one monument above the turf, placed at a spot the cemetery chooses. Cremation lots there take ground-level markers only, and a double marker may not pass 88 inches.

Choosing a memorial for a Troy cemetery

• Upright headstones are what most of our Riverside families choose, in single or companion widths for two names.
• Slant headstones sit low, with an angled face that reads easily from the path.
• Flat grave markers and flat headstones let mowers roll right over them. Riverside asks for them over cremains buried above a casket.
• Bronze grave markers are cast bronze plaques on a granite base, for any grave where a plaque must lie flush.
• Memorial benches give a family a place to sit, and Riverside accepts them on a city-poured foundation.
• Cremation memorials and cremation monuments run from a flat marker over buried urns to a columbarium with its own niches.

No two of our custom memorials are alike, because each one is personalized for a single family. Laser-engraved headstones work best in black granite, where a portrait keeps its fine detail. We also cut lettering deep or skin-cut it, and choose from 42 granite colors.

What a memorial costs in Troy

A typical Troy memorial with us lands between $900 and $6,000. Our price takes in the design, the engraving and the setting. Size, granite color and artwork move the figure up or down. If an affordable headstone matters most, tell us your number and we will design to it.

At Riverside, the city's foundation fee is separate and paid to the City of Troy. That amount is on the table before you sign off. For other cemeteries, see our cemetery foundation fees guide.

You can also pay monthly through SweetPay, Klarna or Affirm. A quick check shows what you qualify for without touching your credit score.

Seeing granite in person

Our Tipp City office, at 5222 S County Road 25A, is the closest one to Troy. You can see and handle real granite samples there. We meet by appointment only, so someone is ready the moment you arrive.

Visits run until 7 PM on weekdays and 4 PM on Saturdays. Book one at (937) 703-4400. Families in Piqua, Dayton and Miami Township are served from the same office.