Gravestone Preservation & Restoration Information
to Help Promote Restoring Historic Cemeteries
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NewsPRESERVING GRAVESTONES HENDERSON WORKSHOPS: CONSERVATOR TO TRAIN PARTICIPANTS ON FIX-UP METHODSBy ALEC JOHNSON TIMES INTERN June 13, 2008 "Like all the other cemeteries, it needs work," said Eric C. Anderson, Henderson town historian. A difference between this cemetery and many of the other small cemeteries is that it will get that much needed attention this summer. The town of Henderson is sponsoring a cemetery conservation workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 26 and 27 in the cemetery at the intersection of Ayles and Shear roads. "When you walk into some of these cemeteries and see broken and downed stones, weeds and trees you get overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done," Mr. Anderson said. "In my number of years as town historian, the condition of the old cemeteries has been my greatest source of frustration and disappointment, because it is not an easy fix." These difficult fixes concerning gravestones will be taught by wokshop leader Jonathan Appell, owner of New England Cemetery Services, West Hartford, Conn.
Mr. Appell, a gravestone conservator, performs gravestone conservation training workshops and cemetery conservation projects across the United States. "Every town in America has an old graveyard but many don't have the money to hire an expert," said Mr. Appell, who will train participants to correctly preserve headstones on their own, so they can help preserve local cemeteries. "In Henderson the program will focus on cleanup and repair of the graveyard," he said. During the workshop, Mr. Appell will teach by example and help participants repair and clean broken and dirty headstones in Bishop Cemetery. "Cleaning itself is a very complex subject," he said.
Sometimes people think that they should bleach headstones and make them look like new. According to Mr. Appell, this is not good for the stones. "You should never put bleach on marble to whiten," he said. "Although it may make it nice and white immediately, it will discolor and weaken the stone in the long run." Another common problem faced by old graveyards is lichen, which envelops the stones and fills in their engravings, leaving them unreadable. "Cleaning lichen with a wire brush is harmful to gravestones," Mr. Appell said. " When you are rubbing away the lichen you are also rubbing away a part of the stone." Powerwashing, he said, is another common mistake made by amateur graveyard conservators. Similar to heavy brushing, power washing deteriorates the stone. "Over the past 100 years a lot of people have done work to revive stones," Mr. Anderson said, however some of this work, because it was not done properly, "has hastened deterioration of old stones." Mr. Appell is no stranger to correct preservation methods. He is a board member of the Association for Gravestone Studies (AGS) and chairman of this year's AGS annual gravestone conservation workshop in Amherst, Mass. He has worked as a gravestone preserver since 1999. "Before that, I was a modern monument installer and cemetery contractor," he said. "When things were vandalized and damaged I started to get a fair amount of calls."
Knowing that modern materials were not appropriate for fixing old stones, Mr. Appell researched ways to properly care for and preserve aged headstones. He eventually turned toward further training in the preservation field, which led him to his new career. "It's a combination of many different fields - geology, archeology and masonry," he said. For more information about Mr. Appell's business, visit his Web sites, www.gravestoneconservation.com and www.gravestonepreservation.info. Registration is $100 per person and will be limited to the first 20 people. To reserve a spot, contact Mr. Anderson at hendersonhist@yahoo.com or call 938-5183. Republished from the Watertown Daily Times. Copyright, 2008, Johnson Newspaper Corporation |
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