Mercer Cemetery at Trenton, located across from the Trenton Transit Center, is seeking volunteers to participate in a free, day-long, hands-on training workshop on Saturday, October 26, 2024. Led by Jonathan Appell a nationally recognized gravestone preservationist of Atlas Preservation, the training session will focus on “righting” fallen or pushed over headstones using proven and safe strategies, and techniques for repairing broken and damaged gravestones. The session begins at 9:00AM and continues through 5:00PM. Water and a box lunch will be provided to registered participants. Those trained will be encouraged to return to Mercer Cemetery and (other area historic cemeteries) during scheduled volunteer sessions in the Spring to help restore them using the skills they learn at the workshop. Additional workshops on gravestone cleaning will be scheduled for the Spring as well.
Mercer Cemetery, established in 1843, is the final resting place of more than 8,500 souls including more than 200 veterans of the Civil War. The first non-sectarian cemetery in Trenton, Mercer Cemetery was a preferred burial site for many of the city’s leading figures in industry and politics between 1850 and 1900. The cemetery is undergoing a restoration to make it more accessible to the public as a quiet place for reflection. In Winter 2023, a vandal toppled more than 75 headstones increasing the need for intervention to restore these monuments noting Trenton’s former residents.
Please register for the training session (name, telephone number & email) by emailing MercerCemeteryTrenton@gmail.com or calling 609.802.3894. Leave your name, phone number, and email address.
