Restoration
Restoration of the monument began October 26, 2008, and was expected to last approximately nine months with a cost $1.5 million. Funds came from federal, state and local governments, veterans' and community groups. Work included cleaning interior and exterior stonework, structural repairs and painting, restoring chandeliers, installing upgraded heating and lighting, repairs to stained glass windows, installing air conditioning and making the monument accessible to disabled visitors. When the marble tablets were created, names were etched with acid, then inked. Over time, the dyes from the ink leached into the marble and discolored it. Workers cleaned each name and restored the marble's original patina. The renovated monument opened June 5, 2010, with $2 million spent on work.
From the time of dedication until the 1940s, plantings around the monument depicted 24 army corps badges and 5 badges of Civil War organizations. After construction work finished, volunteer gardners used over 16,000 plants to recreate the 5 organization badges plus two based on illustrations in the memorial room and one for the Daughters of Union Veterans. The plants cost $6,500 and were specially cultivated for the project. The 24 army badges could not be recreated because of budget constraints.
In 2011, researchers discovered that the names of 140 black soldiers from the area were omitted from the tablets. The commission overseeing the monument said it will add the names and others they discover through additional research.
Read more about this topic: Soldiers' And Sailors' Monument (Cleveland)
Famous quotes containing the word restoration:
“Men who are occupied in the restoration of health to other men, by the joint exertion of skill and humanity, are above all the great of the earth. They even partake of divinity, since to preserve and renew is almost as noble as to create.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“The 1990s, after the reign of terror of academic vandalism, will be a decade of restoration: restoration of meaning, value, beauty, pleasure, and emotion to art and restoration of art to its audience.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)
“I claim that in losing the spinning wheel we lost our left lung. We are, therefore, suffering from galloping consumption. The restoration of the wheel arrests the progress of the fell disease.”
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)