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Commission updates restoration progress, previews Colored Cemetery film and proposes Boston-family memorial
Summary
The commission reported progress on a multi-year monument-restoration project across town cemeteries, previewed a May 4 premiere of a "Colored Cemetery" documentary at the Dreamland, and discussed erecting a memorial for Absalom and Hannah Boston where family burials are unmarked.
The commission reported that monument-restoration work is underway and that contractors have begun or will soon begin repairs in Newtown Cemetery as part of a multi-year program that will reach the town's five cemeteries with the largest numbers of monuments.
Commissioners said specialized mortars and a stone-cleaning product (referred to in the meeting as a biologic cleaner) are being used. The commission said the contractor team will move between island projects as weather and other work schedules permit. Commissioners described the program as restoring upright position, cleaning, and repairing stones where practicable; they also noted at least one stone in Old North Cemetery that is too deteriorated to lift without disintegration.
Members previewed an upcoming public screening: the premiere of a documentary on the Colored Cemetery is scheduled for May 4 at the Dreamland. Commission members said Dreamland capacity is about 314 seats and encouraged people planning to attend to reserve seats through the Dreamland website. Commissioners said they are coordinating with NCTV and a local filmmaker for a recorded one-hour program that would include the film and a post-screening panel.
The commission also discussed family monuments in the Colored Cemetery and a proposal to erect a memorial for Absalom and Hannah Boston and their family because the precise burial spots for several family members are unknown. Commissioners described a recently restored stone (a footstone moved into safekeeping and reinstalled) and said a non-gravestone monument would serve as a memorial if exact grave locations cannot be confirmed.
Ending: Commissioners said the restoration program and the documentary premiere are part of a broader effort to raise awareness of the town's burial places, document unmarked graves, and provide interpretive and commemorative markers where individual stones are missing or irreparably deteriorated.
