In the Southwest corner of Thornhill Cemetery is a line of tall obelisks. The three tallest obelisks are those of John Hardie, Mary Mead Hall Hardie, and their daughter, Annie Hardie Lewis (read more about her on the next page). All three are composed of marble, identified as Italian, John’s being all marble, and Mary and Annie’s being upon granite bases. A few years ago, it was noticed that Annie’s was beginning to lean towards that of her mother, Mary. Not only did this lean increase, but gradually, Mary’s began to lean back slightly toward Annie’s. John’s monument remained stable. The concern was not only that Annie’s would fall, hitting Mary’s on the way down, but that both would fall on John’s, inflicting costly and potentially irreparable damage to all. The Thornhill Foundation’s Cemetery Committee began consulting masons, cemetery preservation groups, and monument companies for approach, proposals, and pricing. Ultimately Clark Memorials from Birmingham was selected to lift Mary’s and Annie’s monuments by crane in order to pour a new, level concrete foundation underneath. Fortunately, with the generous donations from our members, and careful management of our Cemetery Endowment, we were in a position to move forward with the project. An in-house review was made of all requirements as per Thornhill Foundation and Cemetery By-laws, and step by step, the project moved forward.

On Thursday, May 2nd, Pat and Tim Greene from the Cemetery Committee; Rose Scott Rothbart (4.9.1.1.5, president of Thornhill Foundation) and Carl Rothbart, both preservation architects; and Ted Urqhart from the Alabama Cemetery Preservation Alliance joined the crew from Clark (including retired president Pierre Tourney) which arrived to prepare Mary’s and Annie’s monuments for the lift. A massive crane from CraneWorks rolled in and their engineers thoughtfully assessed the conditions before directing Clark’s crew to insert lifting straps under the edges of Mary’s monument. They strapped Mary’s obelisk in a cradle and lifted her 11,000-pound obelisk slowly and carefully into the air in one piece. All Thornhill representatives held their breaths. Mary’s monument slowly sailed across the lawn below the canopy of trees and was gently set upon granite blocks a short distance away, her temporary home for the next month. Once Mary’s obelisk was removed, a base of regularly stacked, un-mortared brick was revealed as forming the original base of Mary’s monument. Next, the crew approached Annie’s monument, whose lean had instigated the project. Annie’s base presented a puzzle. Large, irregular rocks were set under each corner. This situation not only thwarted determination of type, if any, of foundation in the center, but prevented the insertion of the lifting straps, so the crew was hesitant to remove the rocks. Ultimately, after a fairly heroic, creative, and exhausting effort on the part of one crew member (breaths held again), enough progress was made to insert the straps safely and Annie joined her mother in the journey through the air to her new, temporary home. All present were astounded to see Annie’s “foundation” was indeed simply the four large, precariously placed rocks, one at each corner. The concrete slab was poured, the area cleaned, and the month-long curing process began in preparation for the next step.

Finally, after several delays, including weather, a group, although slightly smaller than the first, gathered again. From the Cemetery Committee, Pat Greene and Dudley Long (4.9.1.1.2) were present to observe the resetting of the monuments on Monday, June 24th. Clark Memorials and CraneWorks returned and with no complications this time, lifted Mary’s and Annie’s monuments from their temporary homes back onto their new, level, shared concrete base. Back in place, next to John, to stand once again in their row in Thornhill Cemetery, keeping watch for eternity.

We wish to thank all who made this project possible by their generous donations to the Thornhill Foundation and the Cemetery Endowment Fund. Please remember that maintaining the Cemetery at Thornhill is an ongoing process and we are constantly keeping watch over our family legacy. Thornhill Cemetery is a beautiful and tranquil place, there for all descendants of John and Mary Hardie to visit. Plots are actually still available. Visit Thornhill.org for more information on Thornhill Cemetery.

I you have any questions concerning this project, please contact us at thornhillfoundation@gmail.com.

DOCUMENTS PERTAINING TO LEANING MONUMENT PROJECT – Click to view