Kreilick Conservation, LLC was retained by the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy to perform a conservation treatment of the Civil War Soldiers Monument in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The Monument was dedicated in 1883 and is composed of a Civil War soldier carved in Westerley granite by sculptor John Lacmer. The soldier stands on a piece of granite from Devil’s Den at Gettysburg. The pedestal and base are of Quincy granite. There are bronze plaques on each of the four faces of the pedestal. The Monument is surrounded by an iron fence composed of Civil War-era gun barrels and bayonets with granite posts topped by ornamental globes at each of the four corners. Large, curved bronze plaques with eagles at the top are attached to the corner posts. Within the iron fence are four iron mortars and two iron cannons. One of the cannons was salvaged from H.M.S. Augusta, that blew up on October 22nd, 1777 during the Battle of Red Bank. Also within the fence is a bronze plaque of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address with a marble backing, donated by Edward Stotesbury in 1908.

The scope of work for this Monument included cleaning of all masonry elements; biological growth removal; cutting out and repointing of masonry joints with color-matched mortar; cleaning, re-patinating, hot-waxing and buffing of all bronze plaques; removal of failed coatings and repainting of ferrous elements (fence, mortars, cannons, and plaque stand); replacement of the marble backing on the Gettysburg Address plaque, and the casting of missing bronze rosettes.