Kreilick Conservation, LLC provides conservation, restoration, and preservation of monuments, sculpture, statues, architecture, objects, and industrial artifacts.

Lucy the Elephant

Lucy the Elephant, built in 1881 in Margate City on the south Jersey shore, is a 6-storey high pachyderm-shaped building. The brainchild of real estate speculator James Lafferty Jr., when the area was still primarily tidal inlets and scrub grass, her “howdah” served as a viewing platform for prospective purchasers to survey the surrounding lots. Over the years, she gained popularity as a tourist attraction, and while her ownership changed several times, she was one of very few of her kind of vernacular architecture to survive. Constructed with wooden framing and sheathing and a sheet metal “skin,” she suffered from her proximity to the ocean, experiencing corrosion of her skin and rot of her structure from leaks.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia is a private library founded in 1814. Its current building was erected from 1845-47 from the designs of architect John Notman. It is one of Philadelphia’s first buildings to be constructed of brownstone, and one of the first buildings in America to showcase the Italianate Revival style. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 for its architectural and historical significance.

Step Fountain

Kreilick Conservation, LLC was retained by the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 to restore the Step Fountain designed by Robert Rodes McGoodwin in 1916. Kreilick conserved the original limestone balustrade, lion heads, urns; and bluestone pavers and pedestrian steps. Conservation included cleaning with non-ionic detergent, biocide, steam, and micro-abrasive techniques; injection grouting and mechanical pinning of cracks, patching with color-matched restoration mortar, and repointing of existing stonework. Fountain basins are finished with new plaster coatings.

We are delighted to announce that our project, the The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, has been selected to receive a Leadership Award for Stewardship from Preservation Pennsylvania at the 2023 Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Awards. The Leadership Award for Stewardship is given for “exceptional stewardship efforts by an individual or group on behalf of a significant historic resource.”