Conservators from Chaux Vive cleaned the entire tomb, including scraping off the modern paint that had begun to peel and separate from the tomb. Patches of the historic stucco had begun detached from the underlying brick. These loose areas were removed, and patched with an appropriate lime-based stucco. The entire tomb was repainted with a rose colored limewash, a color that was found on the tomb historically.
Around the southwest elevation of the tomb, where the vault openings are located, the tomb did not receive the new coats of limewash. The family, upon the suggestion of Chaux Vive, opted to leave the range of limewashes readily evident for the visitor to appreciate the range of historic colors found in the historic cemeteries of New Orleans.
Click on the thumbnails below to see images from the Guesnon preservation project.
Lagniappe
