Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Connecting the Present with the Past | Page 22

DID YOU
KNOW?
By Gus Fraser
Vice President of Preservation & Facilities
I
n the early years of the Cemetery’s history, lot
proprietors were responsible for arranging for annual
care of monuments, fences, and tombs constructed on their
lots. As time progressed and lot owners became less active
participants in this care, the Cemetery sought ways to ensure
that the structures in its landscape would receive a basic level
of care in order to preserve them for future generations. By
the mid-1800’s, the Cemetery was entering into Perpetual
Care contracts with lot proprietors that would fund a basic
level of care for their monuments, usually including washing
on a periodic basis, repointing joints between stones, and
resetting the monument if it should settle out of plumb.
Roughly one third of the nearly 50,000 monuments, tombs,
mausolea, curbing, and fences on our grounds are covered
by perpetual care contracts of one form or another. The
obligation to maintain these structures is an essential part
of the Cemetery’s mission, and is often a determining factor
when prioritizing preservation work. Our preservation team
works hard to meet these obligations while also ensuring that
the grounds are free of potential hazards, and protecting the
great diversity of the Cemetery’s collection of monuments and
funerary art that define our historic landscape.
IN ONE YEAR OF
PRESERVATION SERVICES

110 monuments repaired and reset
by staff and contractors
2
historic cast-iron fences repaired
and repainted
42 mausolea swept twice a year
29 mausolea doors waxed

2 significant monuments conserved
3,426 monuments washed
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