Preservation

Preservation Work

We have done a lot of work over the past several years as we have been moving the process towards historic recognition forward.  Our goal is to restore the c. 1875 Gatehouse to as near to original as possible but that will require substantial resources.  In the meantime, one of the main projects we have been working on is cleaning, restoring, and stabilizing the many headstones that we have.  

As you look around the cemetery, you will see many gleaming white stones.  These headstones have been meticulously cleaned by the volunteers with appropriate and approved cleaners and a lot of hard work.  The white stones are marble and many date back to as early as the 1830's while some are as "new" as the 1890's.  At this time, the main gravestone and monument material became granite.  We have also been cleaning some of the granite stones but they are not as visually obvious when they are cleaned.

We will be adding before and after photos of many of our stones as we continue the development of this website but the photos above show the first stone that we restored.

Gravestone Preservation Workshop

The Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Association is proud to have been a stop on the Atlas Preservation 48 State Tour.  Atlas Preservation is owned by Jonathan Appel, a renowned gravestone conservator.  He came to the Orchard Street Cemetery on Thursday August 27, 2020 and gave a seminar to a nice crowd of people interested in the preservation of cemetery stonework.  During the seminar, Jonathan gave us the basics of gravestone cleaning, resetting, and repair.  While the members of the Board of the Orchard Street Gatehouse Historical Association had already begun cleaning gravestones using the same chemicals used by Jonathan, we certainly learned a lot from an expert.