If you look closely at the east or west side of the Caretaker”™s Cottage, most of which was built in 1871, you will see a subtle difference between the back room and the two front rooms. That difference is how you can tell that the backroom is a fairly recent (only 80 years old rather than 149 years old) addition. The roofline is a little lower but that”™s not an age difference. The masonry is identical except for one thing: the top and bottom edges of the newer stones are perfectly straight while the stones on the older rooms are rough-cut. The new stones were cut using power tools while the old stones were cut by hand.
Caretaker Cottage 1940 masonry straight-cut edges differ with 1871 hand-chiseled.
One of five Phillips buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo: TIM McCALL
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Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery: Plenty Work to be done-Revive WPA
By SUE HUNTER WEIR
177th in a Series
If you look closely at the east or west side of the Caretaker”™s Cottage, most of which was built in 1871, you will see a subtle difference between the back room and the two front rooms. That difference is how you can tell that the backroom is a fairly recent (only 80 years old rather than 149 years old) addition. The roofline is a little lower but that”™s not an age difference. The masonry is identical except for one thing: the top and bottom edges of the newer stones are perfectly straight while the stones on the older rooms are rough-cut. The new stones were cut using power tools while the old stones were cut by hand.
It”™s been a challenge to put a date on the “new” addition but the answer was hidden in the monthly reports that Albert Nelson, the Cemetery”™s caretaker from 1827 until 1953, wrote to his supervisor on the last day of the month. Mike Barth, the current caretaker, found those reports last fall.… Read the rest “Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery: Plenty Work to be done-Revive WPA”