The Wilton Main Street Association has spearheaded fundraising to restore the six bronze plaques on three town war monuments.
Restoration of the monuments has been on the association’s to-do list ever since Monument Park underwent renovation two years ago, said WMSA President Alison Meltzer, but the funds weren’t available.
After doing some fundraising and allocating part of its yearly budget, the association also reached out to Bent-Burke American Legion and the Sons of the American Legion, as well as the Wilton Heritage Commission, for donations to raise the $4,000 needed to clean and restore the bronze plaques and clean the marble on three of the memorials.
“Our veterans gave so much of themselves serving our country, and their names should be honored by all of us in gratitude for their service to us,” Meltzer said. “It is quite remarkable to me how many of those names are still common in Wilton.It speaks about a community that holds onto its own, or calls them back from away after a time.”
The oldest of the memorials was dedicated in 1924, Meltzer said, and from what the WMSA could determine, had never been cleaned or restored in the nearly 100 years it has been in the park. The fourth memorial, installed more recently as an Eagle Scout project honoring post-Vietnam veterans, did not require any restoration.
“The best comparison is to now look at the old memorials and the post-Vietnam memorial, which is about 10 years old. And when you look at that, and look at the others, they look all equally the same age. You can’t tell how much older the ones on the big monument are,” Meltzer said.
The WMSA contracted with Manchester Memorial Company to clean the granite. A subcontractor, Daniel Grenier and his grandson Anton Dubois of Dan’s Cemetery Lettering in Barre, Vt., refinished the bronze. The cleaning of the bronze included grinding the surface to remove dirt and patina, a coating of bronze paint and then grinding the letters to let the finish shine through.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Meltzer said. “It just feels really good to get this project completed, especially in time for Memorial Day.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.