Green-Wood Cemetery - Brooklyn, NY

Bringing life back to a cemetery

Kärcher is proud and honored to work with Green-wood Cemetery where this just marks the beginning of a great partnership to help preserve the cemetery for future generations.

Kärcher’s first cemetery cleaning project in the United States. Green-Wood Cemetery, incorporated in 1838 comprising of 478 acres in Brooklyn, boasts extraordinary works of 19th-century sculpture, statuary and architecture. Our first challenge was cleaning the massive and dramatic Miller Mausoleum. The final resting place of William Starr Miller II (1856-1935) and his wife Edith Warren (1866-1944). Niblo Mausoleum, the final resting place for William Niblo (1789-1878), the proprietor of the 19th-century pleasure garden and theater, Noblo’s Garden and the Charlotte Canda Memorial, the final resting place for Charlotte Canda (1828-1845) who at the age of seventeen was thrown from a carriage and died in her father’s arms were also cleaned during this time.

The challenging task was the careful cleaning of those marble surfaces, which were already partially damaged." Neela Wickremesinghe, Manager of Preservation and Restoration at Green-Wood, stated. "Kärcher helps us to prepare some of our most beautiful monuments for restorative measures. The mausoleums of the families Canda, Niblo, and Miller are considered the most significant and popular graves of our cemetery."

Lichens, algae, and mosses were thoroughly and gently removed with the hot water pressure washer HDS 5.0/30. For the paving tiles at the Niblo monument, the Surface Cleaner accessory was used in order to achieve a more even cleaning result. The black crust, which could not be removed with the hot water pressure washer, was dry cleaned by using a particle blaster and aluminum silicate powder. Further, the cleaning of the three set a standard for the restorative cleaning of the other monuments at the cemetery. Kärcher trained the employees of the cemetery in their cleaning techniques and what to be aware of concerning the different materials and contaminations. To help further their efforts Kärcher donated a high pressure washer to Green-Wood Cemetary.