by Rachel Hunter

D B Masonry in Gouverneur has nearly completed all of the repairs needed at the War Memorial Arch in the Gouverneur Village Park.

Owner Naaman Lowry told the Gouverneur Tribune Press this week that 95 percent of the project’s work is done.

The Village of Gouverneur contracted with D B Masonry in Gouverneur for the project work, which included repairs and cleaning to the Memorial Arch in the Gouverneur Village Park. The project included grinding out and repointing old mortar joints, repairs to the concrete top, restore the marble corner on the southwest corner of the arch, and the cleaning and powerwashing of the monument. The project cost was estimated to cost over $30,000, which was funded through a grant secured through New York State Senator Patty Ritchie’s office in 2019 to allow the Village of Gouverneur to make a series of upgrades to the Gouverneur Village Park. Village of Gouverneur Mayor Ron McDougall told the public that the Memorial Arch was the Village’s top priority in the list of items to be addressed. Other project work will include the installation of a new gazebo and other improvements in the Gouverneur Village Park. (It is estimated that the village park improvements will continue on Monday, October 9.)

D B Masonry in Gouverneur told the Gouverneur Tribune Press that the project was more involved and more expensive than previously projected, due to extensive amount of restoration work needed, especially at the top of structure.

“The grant was for $32,000. I had to do a change order for $7,800 because of the unsuspecting cracks in the stone that I had to fix,” Mr. Lowry said, explaining that it added to the materials cost and the estimated project time. The project was delayed from its original schedule due to backordered materials and supply chain shortages.

The repair and restoration work was daunting, but D B Masonry tackled it head-on this summer. “There were one to three inch cracks all the way across both sides of it,” Mr. Lowry said. “Over the years, all of that water got down in it, and calcified. We had to grind that out… and that was just from the water leaking inside. Once we started grinding some of the mortar joints out, there was nothing behind them but dirt. So it was lucky that we addressed it now.”

Mr. Lowry said the repairs will weatherproof the Memorial Arch against further damage, even during the North Country’s harsh winters.

“We repaired the top with a waterproofing concrete, and then we also sealed the top,” he said. “We also caulked the big joints with a waterproofer sealant, and then we put the concrete over that, so hopefully that will last a little bit.” Mr. Lowry suggests that the Village of Gouverneur look at the condition of the Memorial Arch every 10 to 15 years for maintenance purposes.”

The Village of Gouverneur asked D B Masonry to take the scaffolding down in readiness for the “sea of pink and teal” that will arrive in the Gouverneur Village Park for the 2023 Gouverneur Breast and Ovarian Cancer Fund Walk this Saturday, October 7. There is a small amount of sealant and joint-filling work that D B Masonry will tackle at a later time. D B Masonry in Gouverneur was “very proud” to do the repairs and restoration work on the War Memorial Arch for the Village of Gouverneur.

Faithful readers of the Gouverneur Tribune Press will recall that the Gouverneur Memorial Arch was built in the center of the downtown village park in 1905. The effort was funded by the local Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) from the proceeds of special postcards printed with the architect's design for the arch. The Gouverneur Museum reports that close to 200 families made additional donations. Their names were placed on a list that was sealed inside the cornerstone before it was laid. The memorial arch was dedicated on August 30, 1905, as part of the town's Centennial celebration. Over the arch is engraved "Lest We Forget," the theme and purpose of the monument. Various plaques list the names of Gouverneur's first settlers from 1805-1807, and local residents who lost their lives during the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Newly restored, the Gouverneur Memorial Arch continues to stand as one of the area’s most prominent landmarks in the Gouverneur Village Park. For more information about the Memorial Arch, visit www.gouverneurmuseum.com.