Stone Conservation & Preservation
Saturdays, May 13 through October
8:30am to 12:00pm ET
Email us today to be on the list and get notified of special off-schedule days.
Professional Conservation Days - Saturday, July 1 to Monday, July 3 from 9:00am to 12:00pm daily
Join us to work on larger and more complicated projects with cemetery conservator Joe Ferrannini of Grave Stone Matters. Learn to use the tools and advanced methods required to conserve stones while improving Eastern Cemetery.
See how we work on stones and what happens on a typical workday.
If your passion is fixing stuff and digging really big holes, this is your chance to get started. We'll cover the basics of our conservation efforts aimed at keeping headstones and monuments legible and upright for decades (centuries?) to come and do so using methods safe for you and for the stones. Long pants, sturdy shoes, work gloves and sunscreen recommended. (We have sunscreen and bug repellent, too.) The regular schedule for conservation will be Saturday mornings through mid-October and if volunteers are available, we'll add a weekday morning as well. Historically the midweek day has been a Wednesday, but we'll build around the schedules of those who are interested.
We are also looking for volunteers to work on our orphan stone project. This involves documenting and cataloguing the pieces of stones we have found that are now stacked in the shed and then storing them on racks in the receiving tomb. It could be done outside under a tent on nice days or inside the Dead House. (It's possible that this could become all or part of our weekday conservation day.)