Mausoleum visit created a spontaneous, stormy adventure
Apr. 5—WATERTOWN — Carrying buckets in one hand and cellphones turned to flashlight functions in the other hand, attorney Andre J. Hungerford and history buff James P. Barker found themselves hiking through Brookside Cemetery this past Friday and Saturday nights in the sometimes freezing rain, tasked with a chore related to the upkeep of a historic structure at the cemetery.
On Monday morning back home in Maine, Hungerford reflected on the weekend: "Restoring a mausoleum is a lot of work." And after a deep breath, added, "How can I say this? The whole thing was nuts. It all ended very well. That's the only way I can describe it."
For a full description of the weekend adventure, one first must go back to 2020, when GYMO Architecture Engineering & Land Surveying, Watertown, prepared a report for the Hungerford family on the restoration of the Hungerford Mausoleum at Brookside Cemetery.
Orville Hungerford was born on Oct. 29, 1790, in Farmington, Connecticut. Orville's father moved the family to Watertown in 1804, where Orville would become a prominent merchant, banker, industrialist, freemason, and railroad president. He made his fortune supplying the U.S. troops at Sackets Harbor during the War of 1812 and later channeled the profit into banking and commerce. He also was a U.S. Congressman, elected to House of Representatives representing New York State's 29th district between 1843 and 1847. In 1847, Orville was defeated for office of the New York Comptroller by Millard Fillmore, who went on to become the 13th president of the United States.
Orville died on April 6, 1851 in his stone mansion on Washington Street (moved in the early 1960s block-by-block to Flower Avenue West) and was buried with a simple headstone next to his brothers in the "Old Grounds" of the Sawyer Farm, which became part of Brookside Cemetery. The Hungerford mausoleum was commissioned in 1854 by Orville's son, Richard Esselstyne Hungerford. Orville was reinterred in the mausoleum when it was completed in 1860, six years after Brookside Cemetery was formally dedicated.
The 34-foot-tall Gothic- style mausoleum, a popular stop on the annual Jefferson County Historical Society tour, features towers, spires, buttresses, pointed arches and stained-glass windows. Andre announced the plan for the mausoleum's restoration nearly five years ago as part of an exhibit on the life of Orville and other family members. That exhibit, "Hungerford's A$hes," will open with a reception on June 13 at Flower Memorial Library and will be on display through Aug. 18.
The exhibit is being promoted as an "Exhibit of heirlooms and comic-book art taking you on a journey through the North Country." Andre Hungerford was inspired to combine graphic novel and exhibit ideas in 2015 when he attended the Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton Luncheon in New York City to benefit the New York Historical Society. Special guests were Lin-Manuel Miranda and author Ron Chernow. Hungerford talked to both. Miranda turned Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton into a blockbuster Broadway show.
"It was Lin who inspired the idea of mashing up a comic book with a historical figure in the context of a museum show," Hungerford said.
Andrea R. Mutti, a native of Italy who now resides in Florida, is the graphic artist hired by the Hungerford family. He has illustrated "Batman" and "Batwoman" titles for DC Comics. He's also illustrated several titles for Marvel and for Dark Horse Comics, titles such as "Star Wars," "Conan" and "Tomb Raider." A few years ago, he completed a graphic novel on the life of Orville.
Emergency repairs
The weekend trip to the Hungerford Mausoleum originally had a couple of small goals: the mausoleum's steel door needed stripping before painting it gold, symbolizing the name Orville. "What he touched turned to gold," Hungerford said. "Or" is the French word for gold and "Ville" is the French word for city. Another goal was to inspect the stained-glass windows and examine how they could be removed for renewal.
Hungerford hired Ricky Taylor, owner of Redwood-based Taylor's Surface Prep, for the door task. The door's paint was removed over the weekend and was to be primed and painted.
Accompanying Hungerford over the weekend was Anton Topchyyev, owner of Saco, Maine-based Brick & Stones Masonry. He started doing masonry work as a teenager in his native Ukraine. Once Topchyyev examined the mausoleum upon their arrival on Friday, he felt it needed immediate attention. The weekend task expanded beyond a simple look at windows.
"When we got there, it was much worse than we thought," Hungerford said. "And it was raining — freezing rain, no less. And it was like, 'OK. We've got to deal with this right now.'"
But in a fortuitous twist, the rain allowed Topchyyev to help identify a section of the stone from where a large water leak originated from.
Many of the stones had completely deteriorated mortar, Topchyyev explained Monday in a phone interview. "Mortar has a certain life, and after that, it turns to nothing and becomes pretty much dust. Bricks were falling off. We put those back in."
He also discovered holes near the top of the mausoleum that were causing water to flow into the structure. Those were patched. "The weather wasn't cooperating much, that's for sure," Topchyyev said. "We did what we could."
The stone mason was familiar with the GYMO report on the mausoleum.
"The report doesn't do it justice until you get there and look at it physically and touch it," Topchyyev said. "There was a significant crack. We filled that and it stopped quite a bit of water from coming inside."
Energetic visit by 'queen'
Also on scene for the weekend project was Christine ("The History Queen") Darrow, Watertown, who provided a generator and helped with various tasks. Darrow earned a master's degree in museum studies from Oklahoma University and completed additional courses in museum studies at Harvard University.
Darrow, also an actress, is involved in local history groups and societies. In November, she produced a 25-minute pilot video, "Thompson Park: Historic and Mysterious" as part of her "Christine: The History Queen" series of videos. She has produced eight videos, which are scheduled to air on Watertown-based WPBS beginning this fall.
"The show's mission is to inspire the public to love history and drive tourism to historic sites and museums," Darrow said.
The topic of one program is the Hungerford legacy. Darrow and her producer, James P. Barker, assisted Andre at the mausoleum over the weekend. Barker is also a friend of Hungerford's and is founder and manager of the Facebook page, "You haven't lived in Watertown, N.Y., If — ," which has 26,000 followers.
"The show will focus on the accomplishments of Orville Hungerford and how his descendants honor his legacy," Darrow said and added that "'Christine the History Queen' will also be filming at the June 13 exhibit opening at Flower Memorial Library.
"Orville Hungerford laid the groundwork for the city of Watertown, opening the first bank and of course, the railroad is what made Watertown a city," Darrow said. "It thrived once the railroad came and is an integral part of Watertown's history.
Before this past weekend, Darrow had never been to the mausoleum. "It was a learning experience for me as well," she said.
Darrow contacted Hungerford last Thursday. "I saw that it was supposed to be freezing rain all weekend and I thought that would slow things down and I knew they were on a tight schedule, so I asked them if they wanted to use my generator," she said.
"Thank God for that," Hungerford said.
The generator powered a mortar mixer and other tools that Topchyyev had with him. The generator also powered lights. "I also brought a warming tent so they could break and warm up," Darrow said.
Hungerford made trips to Home Depot to pick up materials for the project. But something more was needed, which led to the cemetery tromps. Water and small stones were needed for the mortar mix. Hungerford knew of a nearby stream, and he headed there with Barker on Friday and Saturday nights.
"Jim and I are running down there with buckets, getting water at night," Hungerford said. "There's no lights out there. "We have our iPhones."
Brookside Cemetery management was aware of the weekend visit to the mausoleum.
"Phillip Moses (cemetery director) was very gracious and even left us a huge ladder to use, just in case. So, Anton is up on the ladder and I'm helping him mix stuff and scraping out some of the cracks. We were joking that now I'm a stone mason," said Hungerford, who practices in Maine and Massachusetts.
The crew worked until about 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. They wrapped up the project at about 3 p.m. on Sunday. Hungerford and Topchyyev spent that evening in Massachusetts before heading back to Maine early Monday morning.
"It was very fruitful," Hungerford said. "There was also a lot of stuff to sweep. We got a lot of work done, it needs a lot of work, but it was an adventure in the rain. We didn't anticipate anything like that. I'm appreciative of Jim Barker for coming out and helping with the water and for Christine Darrow, who, on her own, talked to her husband and told him, 'I think these guys might need a generator.' And Anton was kind enough to do a road trip with me to check it out."
Barker suggested to the crew that a written log be created listing work done on the mausoleum and possibly kept on site.
"It may be 165 years too late," Barker said. "But better now for future generations, or however long it may stay standing, just to know what was done."
"It's going to need a lot more work and it's going to take time," Hungerford said. "It's a symbol. That's why the Hungerford family and associated families decided to save it and keep it going."
Hungerford said the weekend at the cemetery wrapped up on an odd note.
"The weird thing is, just down from there, we saw half of a deer's limb. We were joking that there was a werewolf somewhere in the cemetery."
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