{"id":40808,"date":"2022-10-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=40808"},"modified":"2022-10-06T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T10:00:00","slug":"holden-librarys-cornerstone-gets-a-makeover-in-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2022\/10\/06\/holden-librarys-cornerstone-gets-a-makeover-in-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Holden library\u2019s cornerstone gets a makeover … in gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Ken Cleveland <\/b>
\nLandmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

HOLDEN \u2014 A prominent stone in the facade of the Gale Free Library in Holden has always announced the \u201cDamon Memorial 1888,\u201d noting when the structure was originally built.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The lettering on the stone now shines bright with a gold gilding applied recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the best of my knowledge, no one living today knew that what is often referred to as \u2018the cornerstone\u2019 of the Damon Memorial building was ever gilded,\u201d Nancy Richards said.<\/p>\n

As the library\u2019s historian, Richards has an appreciation for the history of the town and of the library.<\/p>\n

But the gilding only recently came to light.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only learned about the gilding a few months ago when I came across a newspaper clipping of Daniel Boyden\u2019s obituary in the Local History Room at the Gale Free Library,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe final paragraph of Boyden\u2019s obituary said that one of his last contributions to his community was gilding the inscribed stone of the Damon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Library Director Susan Scott agreed, Richards added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe passage of time and harsh weather would have destroyed the original gilding, most likely turning it to minuscule flakes,\u201d Richards said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richards turned to a friend, Judith Tonelli-Brown, the senior graphic designer at Assumption University and a freelance graphic designer and creative services consultant.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Judy Tonelli-Brown works on gilding the cornerstone at the Gale Free Library in Holden. The process included finishing the taping and cutting, and applying the primer before finally using gold foil to give the library\u2019s \u201cDamon Memorial 1888\u201d a new shine. Nancy Richards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI had never researched or gilded anything previously,\u201d Tonelli-Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy knows me well \u2014 that I love learning how to do things. So she asked, I did some YouTubing, and said, \u2018Sure!\u2019 \u201cI made certain that she let others know that I was far from a gilder by trade. I wanted full transparency,\u201d she said, adding, \u201cI was honored to be presented the task, and knowing Nancy, there was a historic reason for doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She took her newfound skills and applied them to the project, with the regilding done the weekend of Sept. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an interesting process, but I wouldn\u2019t say it takes a person with great artistic skills to do it,\u201d Tonelli-Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe engraving is already there. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAside 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,\u201d she said, though the foil is very thin.<\/p>\n

The impact of the gilding \u201cprobably 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,\u201d Tonelli-Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the light hits it a certain way, it sparkles and gleams. It\u2019s the icing on the cake, I would think, to an engraved piece of stone or wood.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s life, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no record of when the gilding was originally done.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an adult, Boyden spent time in Worcester and in the Midwest working as a machinist and a painter of passenger railway cars (an \u201cornamental painter\u201d), which once upon a time were beautifully decorated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gale Free Library is fortunate to have two examples of Daniel Boyden\u2019s 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\u2019s death, \u2018View of Holden from Hospital Hill.\u2019\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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\u2019s family. The institution within is known as the Gale Free Library,\u201d the library states in touting the history and architecture of the building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HOLDEN \u2014 A prominent stone in the facade of the Gale Free Library in Holden has always announced the \u201cDamon Memorial 1888,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}