One might say the dead are coming back to life as Friends of Pioneer Cemetery, Historic Preservation Northwest and the City of Lebanon work together to restore the headstones of Lebanon’s founding families.
The grassroots effort, coordinated by Esther Hillary, consists of about half a dozen volunteers – mostly members of the Daughters of the American Revolution – who spend the summer months cleaning and maintaining the historic cemetery.
Hillary spearheaded the project two years ago after seeing several complaints on social media about the deteriorating conditions at Pioneer Cemetery. She reached out to people online and invited her DAR group to participate.
“Our DAR chapter needed a historical preservation project, because that’s one of the big three things that we do (historical preservation, education, patriotism),” she said.
While anyone is welcome to weed and clean the cemetery, the city only allows DAR volunteers to perform the specialized work of cleaning the monuments and headstones, Hillary said. Trained by historic preservationists, DAR members scrape off the moss and use a special spray to wash away the grime and brighten the stones back to their original glory.
In their first year, the group worked on weeding the property, which in some cases was a “monumental” task, so to speak. For example, the Kees monument, Hillary said, was waist high in weeds.
“When we were weeding, we found monuments we didn’t even know was there,” she added.
In their second year, preservationists came in and restored several broken monuments. Now entering their third year, volunteers are back to clean the city’s historic headstones. Visitors can now see some of the hundreds-year old marble stones transformed from what once looked like rough pieces of raw rock back into their original white and polished forms.
Last year, the City of Lebanon was awarded a $5,025 grant through the State of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Heritage Program to fund the cleaning and repair of nine headstones at Pioneer Cemetery.
Historic Preservation Northwest, operated out of Albany by preservation consultants Bernadette Niederer and David Pinyerd, was hired to do the work. DAR hosted the pair on May 8 for a special presentation about their work in Lebanon.
Featuring three of the nine headstones, Niederer and Pinyerd explained how they leveled crooked monuments and used special mortars to repair the broken pieces. Using preservation-safe cleaner – D2 Biological Solution – elaborate fonts used more than 100 years ago on headstones are being unearthed from years of grime.
Ciarra Keene, the city’s public works operations coordinator, said they were unable to obtain a grant this year, but will apply next year to restore more monuments.
Meanwhile, by the hands of the Friends of Pioneer Cemetery, Lebanon’s plot of land holding a tangible piece of its history is transforming into something of a park, where residents can meander and enjoy the scenery.
That’s something that Patrick Skelley – a new Friend of Pioneer Cemetery – likes to do with his wife on his birthday every year as something of a memento mori.
“It’s a reminder that everybody dies,” he said. “So that’s kind of our reminder once a year. I figured since I use this and it’s a public space, I might as well clean it up.”
One of DAR’s newest members, Stephanie Leffler, also joined the cleaning effort this year. On her first day of work, she was found on hands and knees scraping moss off an old marker.
“I think it’s a great thing,” she said. “I love history, I love our community, and I think it’s just really important to do that.”
See before/after photos from Historic Preservation Northwest’s work
Photos courtesy of David Pinyerd
