Restoring Historic Grave Markers at Wye House Cemetery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore
Back in the late 1980s, a local architect asked me to come to the Wye House Estate on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, outside of Easton, to have a look at some aged and failing grave markers of the Lloyd and Tilghman families.
The Wye House Estate on Maryland’s Eastern Shore
The Wye House Estate was waterfront acreage. You came up to the place on a long driveway bordered by giant oak trees on each side that reminded me of Gone with the Wind. There was a big, yellow wooden house at the end of the driveway. I met Mrs. Tilghman and the architect there. Mrs. Tilghman told me that she was the 14th generation of the family.
The house fronted the water, where, once upon a time, ships carrying goods from England and other countries were unloaded, and then reloaded with tobacco. Behind the house was an orangery and the Lloyd and Tilghman family private cemetery — the Wye House Cemetery.
A lot of cutting was needed to get down to solid stone
Walking through the cemetery, I saw how beautiful and similar the grave markers were. It gave you something to think about — a line of 14 generations back to the founders of the estate. We took photos of the markers of the matriarch and patriarch and other stonework needing repair.
Restoration started in the fall. I had two of my best masons at the time with me, Alan Rutherford and Leon Jordan. When winter came, we built an enclosure of two-by-fours and plastic sheets. We put some heat and light in there so we could work after dark.
Stonemasons Alan Rutherford and Leon Jordan at the Wye House Cemetery
Restoring, re-pinning, and resetting casks
Now (funny story) Leon was always scared of cemeteries. He was definitely scared of them after dark. So the rule was that we had to leave before dark, or work without Leon.
Leon said that when he was growing up, his grandmother lived on the other side of a cemetery. There was a long sidewalk that went right smack through the middle of all those headstones. He was so nervous about the cemetery that, as he said, whenever he needed to pass through there, he got up such a head of steam that his feet only touched the ground three times before he landed on his grandmother's front porch.
So, Leon wasn't any big fan of cemeteries, but he stuck with us on this job. We rebuilt the stone where we had to. Most of the casts were split into pieces, so we pinned them and glued them, and put them back together. We reset everything. We put everything back in order.
I’ll tell you what, those monuments were big enough. They had flames carved on each side, six feet up, and these flames had deteriorated as well. Sandstone comes apart like that.
In the photos, you can see how the outer shell is coming off. But that's just the first layer. Under it, more deterioration had happened already.
Family grave markers showed signs of severe deterioration
Templates were made to restore the original flames
Jahn Mortar was applied to assure the repair will last as long as the stone
It was challenging to rebuild the flames. These things are not simple. They’re round, not flat. And since sandstone deteriorates in layers, we had to do a lot of cutting to get down to solid stone. I made templates to put the flames back.
Heinz Jahn poses with the restored monuments
It so happened that Heinz Jahn (the inventor of Jahn Mortars) was visiting from Holland around the time the project was wrapping up. In other posts, I’ve said how Cathedral Stone Products became the sole source provider of Jahn Mortar worldwide (see Coming to America and (From USA to Beyond). Here is a photograph of him beside the two monuments that we had restored.
I'd love to see those monuments again now to find out how they've stood the test of time. I know the Jahn Mortar will hold them together longer than anything else, but it's sandstone, and sandstone will not last forever.
What gives me satisfaction is knowing we helped the Lloyd and Tilghman families hold onto their history so they can pass it even farther down the line.
