Gravestone Cleanings

The Friends of Sleepy Hollow Board members recently cleaned three historic gravestones in the Cemetery to aid in preservation. The team included, from left to right: Tom Smith, Barbara Ewen, Jim Fannin, Priscilla White Sturges, Susan Dee, Rick Frese and Kevin Thomas Plodzik.

The cleaning of the stones was carefully done under the supervision of Jim and Minxie Fannin, Preservation Consultants of the firm Fannin Lehner. Jim is on The Friends of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Board, and he and Minxie graciously provided the right materials and supervision to ensure the headstones were cleaned properly.

The gravestones of Brevet Brigadier General George Lincoln Prescott, George Gray, Hospital Steward (both Civil War era) and Ephriam Wales Bull Jr. were conserved.

A follow-up project took on the cleaning of the Keyes Family burial markers.

The before and after pictures of the gravestones are shown.

George Gray's Gravestone

General Prescott's Gravestone

Munroe Family Plot Fencing

The Friends of Sleepy Hollow recently funded the restoration of the beautiful iron fence originally placed at the front of the burial site of William Munroe and his family within Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The fence, constructed in the late 1800’s, had fallen into such disrepair that it had been removed and placed in storage. The ornate black fencing that has now been restored is emblematic of enclosures that were popular in the Victorian era.

William Munroe (1806-1877), was born in Concord and after living all over the world as a successful business man, he returned when he retired to spend his summers in Concord – specifically at the house that still stands at the corner of Main Street and Academy Lane. With the same determination he leveraged in his business dealings, Munroe established the Concord Free Public Library, including purchasing the property, and orchestrating the moving of buildings, the widening of Main Street, negotiations with town officials and overseeing the move of the Town Library books to the new facility. He also elicited support to expand the Library’s collection from 7,000 volumes, cultivating Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, George Merrick Brooks, Henry Francis Smith and others. The new library was dedicated on October 1, 1873.

Cannon Restoration

A small ship's cannon from an 1812-era man o'war has been placed in the Cemetery as a memorial to the Concord men who fought in the Civil War. It was installed by the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, the principal verterans' organization of the Union Army. The Friends commissioned Don Prentiss to restore this cannon. The before and after pictures are shown.