It’s been a busy summer! You may have noticed a lot of ladders onsite over the last two months. The Oak Hill Cemetery Historic Preservation Foundation commissioned a site-wide condition assessment of our “top five” architectural structures adorning our landscape: Thomas U. Walter’s Corcoran Mausoleum, the red Seneca sandstone Linthicum Mausoleum, George Hadfield’s Van Ness Mausoleum, and the Renwick Chapel and Gate Pillars, as well as the Chapel stained glass. The project was led by experts at J&M Preservation, MTFA, Matteo Ferran, Aeon Preservation and renowned stained glass conservator Julie Sloan, who worked on the chapel windows at Mount Auburn and Green-wood cemeteries, as well as Trinity Church, Boston, and St.Thomas Espiscopal Church and St.Paul’s Chapel in New York. The Condition Assessment Report will prepare a prioritization schedule with recommendations, and an order of magnitude cost estimate for conservation work, so future projects and a long-term preservation schedule can be planned and budgeted considering need/urgency/threat, as well as diverse funding streams like grants and matching funds. It has been so exciting getting to know our significant structures better.
