Volume IV - Annual Meeting

The News from Island Cemetery

Serving Newport’s families for over 175 years …

President’s Report, June 18, 2024

Grounds Update: Frank Amaral’s experience and expertise at all matters horticultural is obvious.  He has been pruning shrubs and hedges and the grounds have never looked better.  We contract with Atlantic Lawn and Garden for cutting and trimming the grass.  We are spending more on maintenance than in the past, approximately 10%, but the increase is offset by the elimination of a monthly invoice to Four Seasons Landscape (Lee Richards).

 If we get requests from lot owners that their lot needs attention, we accommodate them as quickly as possible.  Several have responded positively by making unrestricted donations to the Friends of Island Cemetery. With the recent increase in interest in the cemetery and recognition of availability, we are selling more lots. For burials, we open cremation lots in- house and  we use TJ Brown to open and close full burial graves.

Arboretum: The cemetery has now been granted full arboretum status which has helped to increase attention particularly with regard to the city’s Open Space Plan and the goal of increasing the canopy cover for the city.  The Newport Tree Conservancy and Newport have planted 16 trees along the fence line of Vicksburg Place and Frank has added them to his watering duties.  Within the cemetery we have purchased and planted 3 new trees in one of the carriage lanes that we currently offer for burial locations. The map of the cemetery and its trees can be found at https://www.newporttreeconservancy.org/islandcemetery.

Belmont Chapel Update: The Damon Company removed the chain link fence surrounding the chapel and the scaffolding inside in preparation for the Belmont Stakes Race Day fundraiser.   The interior work is nearly completed with only some further painting remaining. The chancel windows and the window above the entrance are in production and will be reinstalled before the end of summer.  The three large restored stained-glass windows have been reinstalled and look beautiful! The wall painting, designed to replicate what was there originally, adds to the overwhelming effect.  We will make it available by the end of summer for funeral and memorial services for lot owners at a reasonable cost. 

Belmont Stakes Race Day Fundraiser was held on June 8th and we got to show the chapel in its nearly completed state. We had David Riccio of the John Canning Studio and Roberto Rosa of the Serpentino Stained Glass Studio give presentations on the processes used to restore the decorative painting and stained-glass windows. We had the presentations filmed and will have the video of the keynote speakers available in the future.  The weather cooperated this year and we will be able to add approximately $32,000 to the Belmont Chapel Foundation building maintenance fund. 

Awards for Preservation.  We’ve applied for two awards for the Chapel Restoration, the Rhody Award for Historic Preservation by Preserve RI and the Doris Duke Preservation Award which could give the chapel and the cemetery recognition for the beautiful restoration. 

Grants:  We’ve applied for and received another grant from Alletta Morris McBean Trust for the chapel.  This one was for $150,000 specifically for the chapel’s building maintenance fund which brings the total to $200,000.  We hope to increase it to at least $500,000 to assure that the building doesn’t ever lapse into disrepair again.  We also received a matching grant of $9,000 from Preserve RI for a security system for the Admin Building as we now start to focus our attention on that needed restoration. 

And, last but not least, the EJMP Trust continues to help us with the data project by awarding $8,000 to Friends of Island Cemetery in support of our operational costs related to updates and corrections to the database and the mapping.

Restoration of the Admin Building: Our request for $350,000 from the van Beuren Foundation (vBCF) to restore the roof and exterior masonry of the building at 30 Warner St was denied.  Instead, the Foundation asked that we consider all the cemeteries in the area and what a joint vision might look like that included them all.  The newly labeled  “Cemetery District” includes the Braman Cemetery, the City Cemetery, Common Burial Grounds (with God’s Little Acre), the Island Cemetery, the Friends Cemetery and the Annex on Van Zandt  Ave.  We asked vBCF to fund the workshop, as well as the structural assessment of both the garage and the administration building, which they agreed to. On April 19, we held a one-day workshop at the Marriott,  led by Tanya Kelley, of Place Studio LLC, who did the Master Landscape Plan for the Island Cemetery. 

We had a steering committee of 6 representing the directly interested parties and an additional 25 people from other institutions such as the heads of Norman Bird Sanctuary, the Tree Conservancy, Bike RI and Swan Point,   We separated into 5 tables with different topics and questions appropriate to the individual’s knowledge and submitted our answers to Tanya to compile, which she has done. 

                  Some interesting ideas that emerged

·      It was recognized that the Island Cemetery’s staff handles all inquiries from the public of where a burial is located as it is the only location with actual buildings and staff.  All would benefit from a central office for the increasing number of cemetery visitors , with room for ADA compliant bathrooms, additional office space, archival storage, and a large room  with space to assemble for lectures and various gatherings.

·      Signage depicting the Cemetery District’s abutting cemeteries would be helpful for visitors who generally considered them a single cemetery. Also, a central website would be useful. 

·      The need to manage and encourage volunteer help

·      The need to develop in-house capabilities to restore and reset tombstones as a critical need for all.

·      Security is always an issue and we are considering adding a part-time guard to patrol the Island Cemetery.

View the full report on the website at https://www.islandcemeterynewport.com/cemetery-district. We hope to reassemble the core group quarterly to monitor progress and continue what we have begun. 

Special Projects update:  After seeing the condition of the monument on the George Norman lot on our website, https://www.islandcemeterynewport.com/specialprojects and investigating further, the Prince Charitable Trust, members of the Prince family and Guilluame de Ramel have answered our request for funding to repair and restore the lot. They have collectively donated $80K to Friends of Island Cemetery towards the effort. When the work is completed, there will be a plaque installed crediting the contributors. We hope that this is a first and will encourage other owners of historical lots to do the same.

Summer Tour Program Updates: Starting on June 15, 2024, guided tours on Saturday mornings began presented by Lew Keen, Zach Russell, and Rob Vitello to highlight and celebrate the people buried in the Island Cemetery. The first tour was run by Zach and had 6 attendees. There was a considerable amount of interest in the chapel so Zach brought them through and discussed the restoration. Point those interested to our website, https://www.islandcemeterynewport.com/guided-tours, or the office for more information

On August 15th from 9 am to 3pm, the 48 State Tour by Atlas Preservation, a group dedicated to saving America’s graveyards, will hold a workshop at the Island Cemetery as part of their cross-country tour that will be free to the public.  We have reached out to the Newport Restoration Foundation to let them know as they also hold workshops to train stoneworkers and this could be a possible career path.