Cemetery Restoration - Old Cemeteries


01. Making a stone readable for photography.

02. Probing & finding Lost & Fallen stones.

03. Various equipment used in clearing and lifting stones.

04. Repair a very old stone which has broken in half using pins in the seam (somewhat obsolete with epoxies now available) 

05. Repair a very old stone which has broken in half using pins and a plate in the back (No longer recommending pins). 

06. Restore to an upright position a memorial leaning badly and in danger of falling (Do this only if necessary).

07. Repair a group of fallen Box Tombs.

08. Is the mosses and other plant growth that live on the stone harmful for the stones?

09. The Anatomy of a restoration - restoring a completely demolished stone broken into hundreds of pieces.

10. An ongoing restoration effort at Jackson College Cemetery.

11. Trees in the cemetery - shelter foe or friend?

12. The Tornados of 27 April 2011 - a damage assessment and repair progress to certain cemeteries in its path.

13. Cleaning & Sealing an old cracked stone to prevent breakup & also prevent water from seeping thru it too excessively.

It is my wish the following practical treatise on memorial stone restoration will be helpful to those that has the tools,  interest and a little savvy to tackle a project requiring the maintenance of old cemetery including repairing the  memorials stones. There is a critical need for this effort given the rate of decay and destruction of the old memorials in our historic cemeteries. In many cases the records on these stones represent the last surviving records of an early settler and these historical cemetery records deserve to be preserved to the best of our abilities. These stones as records tend to be more durable and lasting than any written records which are constantly being destroyed by fires and un-thoughtful government or persons. This subject while too complex to address here in general will be approached using a few problems commonly seen in old cemeteries. You will find some practical how to advice to use in a careful and well designed application of cemetery maintenance. However, one should be prudent  in the exercise of cemetery restoration. We want no one carelessly exercising these methods and causing more harm than good. Lets face it. This is still a skill that not all have the ability to perform. However, if you can improve on the advice and methods here we would like to hear from you.

C. Wayne Austin, 20 Jul 2011. Revised for further explanation Jul 2015.