Preserving our Preservation

In the course of preparing for our Annual Meeting, I had to review all the things we had done in the past year – and I realized that we had done a lot! 

Even if we limit the survey to preservation work alone, we have an impressive list: one marker repaired and raised again, 8 markers cleaned, one large vault patched and re-stuccoed, bricks repointed in other markers, and three vaults cleaned and lime-washed.  Pretty good!

However, we haven’t been keeping a very close record of this, so we’re reforming our ways and are developing a form to document each feature that we work on. While we have done a lot, we did the work over a very short span of time, so we can go back now during the quiet winter months and recreate the records for what we have done (while we still remember it!).  And we have a photographic record that we will include. 

Most of the markers in the photo below have been cleaned or repaired, and in the spring, we hope to start on the ironwork.

 

All of these records will eventually be in our on-line archive.

In the meantime, come out to our next Open Day, December 17, 2011, and see for yourself!

Preservation Time!

Once again a flock of eager volunteers descended on Tolomato, cleaned it up and flew away again.  We had another preservation work day today, and assorted volunteers, including students from Flagler College and from as far away as SCADA (Savannah College of Art and Design), came to the cemetery to tidy up, clean markers and even limewash a vault.

Here we see volunteer Zack working on the Keenan marker.  He is picking off the vegetation and will clean it with D2.

In this photo, volunteers work on the Andreu vault.  They are getting ready to limewash it after cleaning it. The stucco and mortar are in bad shape and will be restored in the future, but even cleaning it and giving it protective coat of limewash will help preserve it.

Below, a group works on the marker for Francisca Gonzalez, who died in 1876.  They have already done a lot of work; it was illegible when they started.

Triumph!  The Gonzalez marker as it looks now…

and  the Keenan marker and the Andreu vault as they look now. Many, many thanks to all our hardworking preservationists!

Great First Tolomato Talk!

On Sunday, November 6, 2011, the TCPA had its first Annual Meeting and Tolomato Talk.  There was a nor’easter in progress, but hardy TCPA members and the general public managed to slog through the wind and rain and get to the Bishop Baker Center for the event. 

Members heard about our activities in this first eventful year, beginning with our first public meeting on Oct. 9, 2010 and going all the way up to the installation of water in September, 2011 and even to the most recent Minorcan Mass, held just the day before the meeting. In the photo, Rusty Hall leads off with the Minorcan flag, followed by Carol Lopez Bradshaw and other members of the Menorcan Society, along with Fr. Ed Booth, the celebrant of the mass.

For the Tolomato Talk, which will be an annual event, Fr. Tim Lindenfelser offered a wide-ranging survey of Christian burial practices over the centuries, culminating in their expression in the markers and layout of Tolomato Cemetery. We hope to put the video or a link to it on our website or blog. It was taken on a cell-phone, so we’re not sure of the quality yet – but for starters, here’s a little shot of Fr. Lim Lindenfelser at the podium.