Charlestown Cemetery Association gets grant for repairs

Erik Hackman, The Evening News and the Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind.
·2 min read

Nov. 9—CHARLESTOWN — The Charlestown Cemetery Association has been approved for a $10,000 Façade Grant by the Redevelopment Commission for repairs to the holding building in the cemetery.

During the winter in past times, a holding building was used to keep the bodies and caskets safe because the ground was too frozen to dig with shovels.

The building is near the gravesite of Jonathan Jennings, Indiana's first governor, as well as many of the graves of Civil War veterans and World War I veterans.

This holding building has been in the cemetery since about 1825. It is now used as a backdrop for events at the cemetery.

It also holds flowers that are displaced from the gravestones. If a big wind comes through, the cemetery attendant will pick up the flowers and place them in the holding building.

"We were told that the building was going to need a lot of repairs or it's going to be torn down," said Bill Crace, a board member on the cemetery association. "In my opinion and the opinion of all the people that were at that meeting, we really wanted to keep that building."

To keep the building, they started a fundraiser in September to help raise money for the repairs. The total estimated cost of repairs is $19,200. Repairs will start as soon as possible and will end before the start of winter.

Repairs that need to be made to the building are on the external portion of the roof and also include resurfacing, replacing wood doors, repairing and painting the interior gates, replacing broken and missing brick and mortar, repairing exterior block sidewalks and repainting and replacing rusted flagpoles with a new 30-foot aluminum pole.

"It's important to acknowledge their history and help preserve it," said Jill Saegesser, the Wheatley Group's vice president of economic development. "I think that was the premise of the approval of the assistance there at the cemetery."

The Wheatley Group is not a part of the redevelopment commission but assists the city with redevelopment matters, meetings and minutes.

Donations are still needed for the project, as the grant will only reimburse the cemetery association for half of the project.

"I just can't imagine a place without that building," Crace said. "We're trying to raise that money... We're going to get the finances to get them done. People want to see it saved."