Extraordinary lapidary in the cemetery in Barre

En route Montreal we stopped to see Barre’s Hope Cemetery, final resting place to many local quarrymen and their families. There are many tributes to the stonemason’s art, from serene Nouveau and Deco to religious Italianate to just kitschy. Many of the quarry workers died young of silicosis.

They proudly remember their allegiances, military and fraternal: Elks, Odd Fellows, Freemasons, and even Improved Order of Red Men.

On a photographic note: It is a gray day, and the granite is famously gray, and there’s something gray about the whole idea of a cemetery, so I mostly resisted the urge to punch up the colors on the pics.