Historic Headstone Repair Workshop
May 20-21, 2023
On May 20-21, 2023, the Giles County Historical Society and Wolf Gap are co-sponsoring a Historic Headstone Repair Workshop to take place in historic Maplewood Cemetery in Pulaski, TN.
Saturday May 20th (9am-5pm with lunch break) will be a full day of instruction and demonstration of techniques for repairing and re-setting damaged historic grave markers with many hands-on opportunities. Sunday May 21st (12pm-4pm) will be an afternoon of hands-on practice. Instruction will include best practices and safe techniques for repairing broken stones, re-setting stones into their bases, and re-setting bases which have leaned or fallen.
All activities will take place in Maplewood Cemetery, 500 Ballentine St., Pulaski TN. Repair instruction will be led by Mike Alexander of Respect Tombstone Historic Headstone Repair, member of the Cemetery Conservators for United Standards.
There will be an optional free headstone cleaning workshop at Maplewood Cemetery the afternoon prior to the full workshop, on Friday May 19th from 4pm-5:30pm led by Wolf Gap's Kelly Hamlin.
The Headstone Repair Workshop registration fee is $25 for members of the Giles County Historical Society and $35 for non-members. Your registration is not complete until we have received payment for your space. We will send you a confirmation email when we have received your payment and your space is secured.
There are two options for payment: (1) a check written to Wolf Gap, mailed to Wolf Gap, 2718 Tarpley Shop Rd., Pulaski TN 38748, or (2) via PayPal at this link, but you must add a $1.50 processing fee to your registration fee. If you use PayPal, make sure to note your name and "Headstone Repair Workshop" in the details of your payment.
You will be asked to complete a liability release on the day of the workshop, releasing Maplewood Cemetery and the City of Pulaski from liability incurred during your participation.
If you have questions about the workshop or the payment process, contact Kelly Hamlin at kelly.hamlin@wolfgaptn.com or 256-527-0536.
Wolf Gap Cemetery Outreach ProjectS 2022
With the support of Humanities Tennessee, in September and October of 2022 five Giles County historic cemeteries benefited from hands-on cemetery preservation workshops.
The workshops took place at John Laird Family Cemetery, Brick Church Community Cemetery, Phoenix Chapel Cemetery, Indian Creek M.B. Church Cemetery, and Powell Chapel Memorial Cemetery. The selected cemeteries submitted applications for participation and were selected based on their historic significance and the state of their historic headstones.
Participating groups worked alongside Wolf Gap volunteers in a two-hour hands-on workshop at their cemetery, reviewing cemetery research methods and using the highest quality supplies to safely clean historic headstones. At the conclusion of the workshop, each group received its own “cemetery cleanup kit” including supplies and a step-by-step booklet for their continued use to maintain their cemetery.
We hope to make this an annual project. However, in the meantime, we will try to assist with other local historic cemeteries as our time, funding, and capacity allows. Contact Kelly Hamlin for more information at Kelly.hamlin@wolfgaptn.com or 931-292-3733.
This project was funded in part by a grant from Humanities Tennessee, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the NEH Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative.