Conservation group to head Marblehead cemetery restoration project

MARBLEHEAD – One could say that the Town of Marblehead is working on a jigsaw puzzle – but it’s a jigsaw puzzle of great historic interest.Selectmen and the five-member Old Burial Hill Oversight Committee, which will study needs and authorize repairs to the gravesites at Old Burial Hill, have chosen Ivan Myjer of Building & Monument Conservation to head the restoration project at the 1638 cemetery where weather and vandalism have taken a toll over the years. Myjer will be working with Shary Berg.”Years of neglect combined with our harsh climate have taken their toll on the gravestones, many of which have broken and missing pieces,” Town Planner Becky Curran told selectmen last week. Curran is project coordinator for the restoration.As Myjer and Berg assemble their preliminary plan they will make an “in-depth assessment” of each headstone, footstone and monument at Old Burial Hill – along with headstone fragments.”There are a number of missing fragments that the committee would like to retrieve,” Curran said. “Any information leading to the recovery of some of these missing pieces would be greatly appreciated.”The committee includes E. Russell “Zeke” Peach, chairman, and Susan Hogan, Town Historian Bette Hunt and Pam Peterson. The town is putting up $9,000 for the plan, matched by a $9,000 grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission.