HOLDEN — A prominent stone in the facade of the Gale Free Library in Holden has always announced the “Damon Memorial 1888,” noting when the structure was originally built.
Donated in memory of the Damon family, the building has served the town as library, as well as, for many years early in its life, classrooms.
The lettering on the stone now shines bright with a gold gilding applied recently.
“To the best of my knowledge, no one living today knew that what is often referred to as ‘the cornerstone’ of the Damon Memorial building was ever gilded,” Nancy Richards said.
As the library’s historian, Richards has an appreciation for the history of the town and of the library.
But the gilding only recently came to light.
“I only learned about the gilding a few months ago when I came across a newspaper clipping of Daniel Boyden’s obituary in the Local History Room at the Gale Free Library,” Richards said.
“The final paragraph of Boyden’s obituary said that one of his last contributions to his community was gilding the inscribed stone of the Damon.
“I immediately thought that recapturing how the stone would have appeared to many people during the early years of the Damon, which originally housed both the Gale Free Library and Holden High School (from 1888 to 1926), would make for a lovely historical project,” she said.
Library Director Susan Scott agreed, Richards added.
“The passage of time and harsh weather would have destroyed the original gilding, most likely turning it to minuscule flakes,” Richards said. “I was unable to find any sign of the original gold leaf with a strong magnifying glass; however, using even stronger optics might have turned up a wee deposit or two.”
Richards turned to a friend, Judith Tonelli-Brown, the senior graphic designer at Assumption University and a freelance graphic designer and creative services consultant.
“I had never researched or gilded anything previously,” Tonelli-Brown said.
“Nancy knows me well — that I love learning how to do things. So she asked, I did some YouTubing, and said, ‘Sure!’ “I made certain that she let others know that I was far from a gilder by trade. I wanted full transparency,” she said, adding, “I was honored to be presented the task, and knowing Nancy, there was a historic reason for doing it.”
She took her newfound skills and applied them to the project, with the regilding done the weekend of Sept. 17.
“It’s an interesting process, but I wouldn’t say it takes a person with great artistic skills to do it,” Tonelli-Brown said.
“The engraving is already there. It’s all about masking the engraving scrupulously, so that none of the primer, adhesive (called size), or gold leaf ends up applied outside the edge of the engraving.
“Aside from that, timing is of the essence. I found that out through trial and error. If you let the size dry too much, it loses its adhesiveness, and the gold does not stick. And the drying time is a function of temperature and humidity. Wind can play a factor, too. That gets scary, because the gold foil can blow away, off its sheet! And it is truly gold foil,” she said, though the foil is very thin.
The impact of the gilding “probably has to do with the fact that gold is fancy and expensive, so it lends an element of respect and honor to an object that is gilded. Aside from that, it makes the object more noticeable,” Tonelli-Brown said.
“When the light hits it a certain way, it sparkles and gleams. It’s the icing on the cake, I would think, to an engraved piece of stone or wood.”
Daniel Boyden, who had done the gilding originally, was born in Holden in 1823 to Comfort and Silence Boyden, Richards said. Boyden died in Holden in 1904; thus, the original gilding was done sometime before 1904, or sometime during the first 15 years of the building’s life, she noted.
“We have no record of when the gilding was originally done.”
As an adult, Boyden spent time in Worcester and in the Midwest working as a machinist and a painter of passenger railway cars (an “ornamental painter”), which once upon a time were beautifully decorated.
“The Gale Free Library is fortunate to have two examples of Daniel Boyden’s art in our Reading Room: A map of the United States and its territories that he drew in ink as a teenager, and an oil painting from the 1890s with the title, given to the painting after Boyden’s death, ‘View of Holden from Hospital Hill.’” Richards said.
“In 1888, Samuel C. Gale and his wife, Susan Damon Gale, presented the people of Holden with a beautiful, custom- built stone library and its land in the center of town. Still standing and thriving in its original purpose, the building is named the Damon Memorial in honor of Susan’s family. The institution within is known as the Gale Free Library,” the library states in touting the history and architecture of the building.
