|
TOMB
#564 Lacombe
At the east end of the 9L tombscape is the tomb of the Lacombe family. Similar in style to the Perrault and Fleitas family tombs, also located in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 cemetery, the Lacombe family tomb is a brick and stucco tomb, with beautifully detailed mouldings, hip roof, and iron and zinc enclosure. At the start of the project, the Lacombe tomb retained much of its original stucco coating, but had lost some of the decorative detailing at the capitals of the pilasters, as well as most of the roof stucco. On the southwest elevation, an old repair using Portland cement was causing some moisture problems. The marble step to the tomb had lost a corner, and the marble closure tablets were in place, but mostly effaced. Luckily, the tomb was structurally still sound, but still required a great deal of work.
Laura Ewen, conservation assistant, started the restoration process by cleaning various parts of the tomb. She removed loose stucco and mortar from the roof, and scrubbed the whole tomb down with a scrub brush and water. Biogrowth and plants had taken root in some of the mortar joints, so those were removed. The Portland patch was removed, to alleviate the moisture problems it was triggering in the underlying building materials. Since the Portland is a much harder substance than the historic materials, it unfortunately detached some of the brick face with it. Laura also cleaned out the expansion joints where the metal enclosure meets the tomb.
Part of the restoration process involves recording the moulding profiles that exist on the tombs. Not only does this provide a record of what the tomb looked like, but it also serves as a resource for replication of missing sections. Since the tombs had been limewashed several times over the years, limewash had built up within the quirks of the molding profiles of the cornice and pilaster capitals and bases. This accumulated limewash obscured the lines of the original design, so Laura scraped the mouldings clean in order to reveal the true profile. Stone carver Anthony Henderson has already completed several repairs along 9L, including the missing corner of the step on the Lacombe tomb. The corner had broken off at its joint with the iron gate, probably triggered by the expansion of the iron caused by rusting. Anthony repaired the corner with a marble Dutchman.
There is still much to be done on the Lacombe tomb. The bricks on the roof have to be reset with a soft, lime-based mortar, and then the roof will be re-stuccoed. Extensive repairs on the metalwork will take place, with a new cross for the gate fabricated by Jim Jenkins, blacksmith. Finally, like the other tombs on 9L, the Lacombe tomb will receive a new coat of limewash. The color of each will be determined according to the original colors discovered by microscopic analysis. In the case of the Lacombe tomb, the limewash will be a rouge. Program Intro | Site History | Emergency Stabilization | Lacombe Tomb | Malard Tomb |
 Web
Site Design and Web
Hosting provided by |