OCTOBER IS GRAVEYARD MONTH AT CHRIST CHURCH
Christ Church is holding several events in October 2018 to explore and celebrate several aspects of our historic graveyard. All events are free and open to the public.
GRAVEYARD TOUR
OCTOBER 6, 2018
The first event in Christ Church’s “October is Graveyard Month” was held on Saturday October 6th. This event was a guided tour of the graveyard based on the recently created Graveyard Self-Guided Tour Brochure. The tour guide was Ryan Radice, a student at Monmouth University, and a co-creator of the brochure. Ryan is also a tour guide at Ellis Island. There were about 25 tourists and feedback was very positive. Ryan made stops at many of the gravestones identified in the brochure.
GRAVESTONE CLEANING AND RUBBING
On October 13th the second of three events that are part of October Graveyard Month was held. Lorraine Schnabel, the Graveyard Conservator, led the gravestone cleaning workshop and Kim Roberts-Honecker did the same for the gravestone rubbing. While rain early in the event held down attendance a total of 15 stones were cleaned and three had rubbings. Those participating were MiMi and Gordon Brown, Edgar John, Walter Dein, Jennifer Shamrock, Kristen Kormann, Reverend Lisa Mitchell, Jennifer Lovekin, Emily Blaser, and Bob Kelly. There were some learnings in the cleaning aspect as the red lichen was very resistant to removal. The rubbings went well despite the early rain. MiMi and Gordon were pleased to be able to clean the gravestone of their good friend Andree Lucantoni whose marker is in the Sycamore Garden.
On the before and after photos note the dramatic improvement with using just the brushes and water. Also on the Joseph Allen stone, how the inscription is so much easier to read with the lichen cleaned out.
A repeat event will be held Saturday October 20th.
Gravestone Rubbing
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- Set up for rubbing
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- Start rubbing
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- rubbing
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- rubbing complete
Gravestone Cleaning
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- Example of Marble
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- Example of Brownstone
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- Example of Granite
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- Learning about cleaning
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- Tools used
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- Cleaning lichen
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- Many stones can be cleaned
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- Some are too fragile
***Due to the weather the Halloween event scheduled for this Sat., Oct. 27th is cancelled***
The final event this year will be a Halloween Visit to the Christ Church Graveyard and is called Holy Halloween Batman. This activity is oriented to children in their Halloween costumes with candy and costumed graveyard actors. Come experience the “Ghostly Graveyard Scavenger Hunt” and where old souls are waiting to tell you about life in historic Shrewsbury and hand out prizes to those brave enough to partake. There will also be face painting and Halloween decorating for kids of all ages and live entertainment following the scavenger hunt. Come any time from 4-6 pm.
