Albion looking to add kiosk, brochures for names on tower at cemetery
Photos by Tom Rivers: Inside the tower at Mount Albion Cemetery there are nine marble slabs with the names of 463 soldiers from Orleans County who served in the Civil War.
Many of the names on the tablets have become worn and are difficult to read.
ALBION – Many of the names on marble tablets inside the tower at Mount Albion Cemetery are difficult to read, worn down after nearly 150 years.
Diana Augspurger of Buffalo noticed the condition about a year ago and has been considering options to prevent further decay. She brought out a glass specialist who looked at putting glass coverings in front of the tablets, with room for air.
That would likely top $20,000, and could be difficult to put inside the Medina sandstone tower, which was built in 1876 as a memorial to the nearly 500 soldiers from Orleans County who died in the war. The community had the tower dedicated on the 100thanniversary of the country’s founding.
Augspurger also suggested there be lights inside the tower to illuminate the tablets.
Jason Zicari, cemetery foreman, and local officials, including County Historian Matt Ballard, recently were at the tower to consider options.
Zicari said putting lights inside the tower wouldn’t be practical. The main culprit in corroding the names seems to be water infiltration. Zicari said recent work by mason Neal Muscarella to repoint the tower should keep water away from the tablets.
If the goal is to help people know the 463 names on the tablets, Ballard suggested a kiosk near the with the names and also its history as a Civil War memorial. He also said brochures with the names could be produced.
Mayor Eileen Banker and the Village Board like those ideas. The board will work Augspurger and other interested community members to raise funding and create the kiosk and brochures.
Ballard, during a recent meeting with the board, said he is concerned about the condition for the chapel near the entrance of the cemetery. He said that should be a pressing concern.
Mayor Banker said the village will likely to be pursuing grant funding for work at the chapel.
