News Year Day 2018, Monday...a good day for ruminating…
Hey! Laurel Hill Cemetery stole my post! LOL! Just kidding - but they did publish a great post about all of the work they do to be good caretakers of this historic cemetery. Their very positive explanation is here:
I recently took a number of photos of some of the challenges the cemetery, and all cemeteries, especially historic ones, face. The ongoing upkeep and restoration of a cemetery.
When you come an historic cemetery, you might see quite a few stones knocked down and lying about, some broken, some beginning to sink into the ground. Most often these are not victims of vandalism, unless you count the vandalous behavior of our peskiest of little friends, the groundhogs! Cheeky buggers! I haven’t got any pictures of them I’ve taken myself, but you here’s what they look like, all fat and happy.
Just search “groundhog in cemetery” in Google - you’ll get the picture.
There was a great story by Steve Hartman of CBS Sunday Morning about groundhogs in a cemetery with a lot of veterans, flags, and re-decorating…
Surrender to the groundhogs!! I just love to tell that story when we warn tour attendees about groundhog holes…
But groundhog damage isn’t funny. The digging of their burrows causes stones to topple, then to sink into the ground when the it gets wet. So the fallen and broken stones have to be fixed:
There’s kind of eerie beauty to them, isn’t there? But the staff and supporters of the cemeteries are all about preservation and honoring the dead. So they must be repaired and restored.
Here is an article for you from The National Park Service on how stones can be damaged and how they are repaired:
You can see how much work goes into it.
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS DOCUMENT TO GO TO THE CEMETERY AND START FIXING STONES ALL ON YOUR OWN!!! I will get into big trouble! LOL! If you see a stone in distress, snap a photo with your phone and bring it to the folks in charge of that cemetery. They might not know that particular stone needs some love, or it might be on a list to be repaired. Money and resources are always in short supply, and they get to as many stones as they can.
Another problem that is related to falling and broken stones is that they can sink into the earth. Laurel Hill Cemetery does a stellar job of reclaiming stones - over 800 last year alone. You can easily identify a reclaimed stone by the orange color - the iron in the soil has leached into the marble. Again, they can be beautiful, and each one is a testament to the work of the cemetery supervisor and his crew.
Found in two pieces and repaired! Yay!
You can imagine that these were only partially submerged, with the grayish faces still above the soil. Isn’t this striking? The stones may have looked like this when they were found:
See how those orange stones just jump out at you? They add such depth to the landscape.
Broken and lost stones are not the only problem in a cemetery. Laurel Hill is also a special garden space, and an arboretum.
My tree! Somewhere right around here is the plot my husband and I own and will eventually ‘live’ in.
Bushes, trees, flowers - all waiting for spring to come to life again (just the flowers and bushes, etc., nothing else!! LOL!).
You can also see that this cemetery, as in most Victorian era cemeteries, do not have nice neat rows of stones, marching in a row. Some small areas will have stones facing in two or three different directions, right next to each other. That means that mowing is a serious challenge. Often the grounds crew has to cut the grass with a weed whacker. That’s 78 acres, folks.
And one other problem that always stands out for me. Many of the family plots were once surrounded by ironwork fences, so amazing. Here is one still intact:
Since it’s iron, it has to be carefully maintained, painted to protect it from the elements, etc. in order to keep it so beautiful.
One of the legends of the cemetery is that these iron fences and other metal bits were scavenged during WWII, in metal drives for the war effort. But, really, they mostly just rusted away and were lost during the dark days when the cemetery was in disrepair. Then you might see this lonely corner stone:
The round hole where an iron chain might have been mounted. Sigh.
And walkways! Look at the shape of this one, where you can clearly see an intrepid cemetery tour guide looking for stories to share got her boot heels into that pristine walkway!!
So just a little glimpse into all the work that goes into keeping a cemetery in good shape and preserving its history for all of us. Day after day, month after month, season after season.
Spring is coming, and we all might love to take a lovely turn in the gardens of Laurel Hill or our local historic cemetery garden. But the cemetery in winter has its own magic. You might see a fox in the snow, or that gray sky with the weak sun on the stones. Amazing.
Check out Laurel Hill’s posting about the work they do once again. Consider becoming a member for the New Year, won’t you? Discounts to events, invitations to special member only events, and helping to keep the cemetery in such lovely condition. And spare a thought for the workers and staff who work so hard to preserve it for us.
(all photos by me, taken at Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA)
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