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Date: 7/12/2021
WESTFIELD – The process of restoring some of Westfield’s historic statues and monuments began over the July 4 weekend but was delayed by storms and a malfunction with one of the machines used for restoration.
Gordon Ponsford of Ponsford Ltd. completed the restoration of the Gen. William Shepard statue at Park Square July 6 before moving on to monuments in Parker Memorial Park. When he was nearly done there, an issue arose with the fiber light laser he uses to remove the corrosive layers from statues.
Graves Officer Gene Theroux said July 8 that Ponsford would likely return to finish the statues in two to three weeks. Persistent storms throughout the week also contributed to the delay.
The restoration of the statues and monuments began with a request for Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding from Theroux, who said that some of the statues in Westfield’s parks and cemeteries were in need of repairs. Many of the statues, like the Gen. Shepard statue, had become corroded and turned green from their original bronze color over time.
Theroux said that he has been acting as a project manager for the restoration project. He said he wrote four CPA commissions for the project. The Community Preservation Committee granted Theroux’s request for $128,500 for the restorations April 21.
Ponsford runs his company out of Atlanta, Georgia. Theroux said it is common for conservators to do jobs nowhere near their headquarters. Ponsford had done conservation work in Arlington National Cemetery for 20 years.
“The conservators, even if they are local, will do jobs all across the country. Another guy I looked at in Hamden, CT, did work in Iowa this year,” said Theroux, “Their schedules are booked nearly a year out. I wanted to make sure we got the best we possibly could.”
Ponsford uses a combination of the fiber light laser and a wax seal to restore the corroded bronze statues. The process removes the patina, which is the green corrosion that usually overtakes statues due to oxygen exposure.
The Gen. Shepard statue was erected in 1919, but it had a relatively low amount of copper due to shortages from World War I. As a result, the statue did not turn green until at least 1951, according to the written history of the monument on the city of Westfield website. In 1951, the statue was purposefully treated with an acid to give the green color it had worn until last week.
Theroux said that the fiber light laser is the least intrusive method of removing the patina from the monuments. He said it could remove ink from a piece of paper without damaging the paper itself.