Taphophilia.(dot) Com - Historic cemetery getting new life

Welcome

Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.

What's at Taph?

Taphophilia Home

Thanatology Forums

Taphophile Weblinks

Taph's Article Archive

Contact Deadgirl

Donating to Taphophilia

Book Library

Deadgirl Recommends

Dig Deeper

Literature

Topics at Taphophilia

Deadgirl's Dictionary

Cemetery Photography

Industry News

Carved in Stone

A Taphophilia Thank You...

Taphophilia (dot) Com would not be possible without the knowledge, experience and talent of DarkestWeb. From
its conception and early development, DarkestWeb
was faced with many challenges; from inspiring and motivating, to providing guidance and direction. The continued dedication and support has produced results greater than ever expected, and for this, I owe a huge debt of gratitude.

Cemetery Snapshot

Announcements

Graveyards of Chicago:
The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries
By Matt Hucke And Ursula Bielski. Discover a Chicago That Exists Just Beneath the Surface - About Six Feet Under! Take a tour of Chicago's permanent residents! Please visit the Lake Claremont Press website to purchase your copy of Graveyards of Chicago today!

Green-Wood Cemetery Arcadia Publishing announces the release of Alexandra Mosca's historic account of one of New York's most famous cemeteries. Aracdia Publishing's Images of America series has an extensive catalog of many cemetery publications! Please visit Arcadia Publishing to purchase your copy of Green-Wood Cemetery and to browse other available titles!

Men of Mortuaries Calendar
To purchase your 2008 calendar, learn more about the KAMMCARES Foundation, or to be featured in the 2009 calendar, please visit Men of Mortuaries.

Epitaphs: The Magazine for Cemetery Lovers By Cemetery Lovers
For information regarding subscriptions, single issues, submission guidelines, deadlines, classifieds or advertising for future issues, please visit The Cemetery Club.

Guardians of the Soul: Angels and Innocents, Mourners and Saints, Indiana's remarkable cemetery sculpture
with photography by John Bower and foreword by Claude Cookman is now
available. Please visit
Studio Indiana for more information.

West Springfield Massachusetts: Stories Carved in Stone by Rusty Clark features information on early New England gravestone carvers with more than two hundred photos and illustrations. Please visit the Dog Pond Press website.

Historic cemetery getting new life

Written by DeadGirl
Thursday, 17 August 2006
Resting place of founder of Saratoga Springs is being restored By LEIGH HORNBECK, Staff writer July 18, 2006 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth forever. -- From Gideon and Doanda Putnam's grave marker SARATOGA SPRINGS -- As a newlywed almost 60 years ago, Evelyn Scavone moved next to Sam and Ruth Chapman and has been looking after them ever since. "People ask me if I'm scared living next to a cemetery, but they are the best neighbors I could have. They never ask to borrow anything," Scavone said, looking out her kitchen window at the pillar that marks the final resting place of the Chapmans, dead for 150 years. The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation is overseeing renovation of the cemetery, the burial place of city founder Gideon Putnam and his wife Doanda. This month, stone masons are at work shaping limestone into columns for a new steel fence along South Franklin Street on the city's west side. About a dozen headstones have been renovated and a plaque placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1921 was rededicated in June. Neglect, weather and vandals have damaged the graveyard, in some cases beyond repair because the broken pieces of headstones found scattered in the grass don't offer enough clues to put them back together or anchor them again to the ground near the body they marked. Instead, three shelves near the back of the cemetery hold a jumble of marble, marked here and there with a piece of a name, the edge of a date. Elsewhere in the graveyard, only a tray for a headstone remains, or a sheared-off piece of thin marble, its inscription erased by time. Some of the markers were pieced back together with epoxy or steel rods, like the stone that belongs to Revolutionary War veteran Arnold Bliven. More than 150 years of accumulated pockmarks and grime were smoothed away as part of the renovation as well. The marble feels velvety after chemicals were used to clean it. "You can't sand it," said Gene Corsale, 78, who is among the city residents raising money for the work on the cemetery. "You can't even use a wire brush because marble is so soft." No comprehensive record was left of burials in the graveyard between 1812 -- when Gideon Putnam was laid there -- to the last funeral in 1871, Corsale said. Many families, including Putnam descendants, reinterred their loved ones when the Greenridge Cemetery opened on Lincoln Avenue, but Gideon and Doanda remain within the walled Putnam plot under a 13-foot marble slab and a plinth. Corsale said repairs at the cemetery have so far cost $100,000, largely state money set aside by Sen. Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, and Assemblyman James Tedisco, R-Schenectady. Corsale said he has also received $7,000 in donations to help. After the fence is complete, Corsale said he wants to have Victorian lighting and sensors installed so the lights will come on when a trespasser enters the cemetery. In the meantime, Scavone will keep up her maintenance of the Chapman plot, where she planted shrubs and hostas now in bloom. Scavone, 78, said she raised four children in the tidy house next to the burial ground. Her boys played baseball among the stones. "They would say, 'Irene is first base,' " Scavone said. http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=500554&category=SARATOGA&BCCode=LOCAL&newsdate=7/18/2006

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

SEO by Artio

Taphophilia?

taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)

ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries