The Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City, NY, is a testament to world hunger and the great potato famine that occurred in Ireland from 1846-1851. Left: The Memorial is located just two blocks from the World Trade Center site. Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, work on the Memorial was delayed but has since resumed. Top Right: A stone lintel, part of the cottage transported from Ireland and rebuilt here, spans the wall opening as well as the imagination. St. Astier Natural Hydraulic Lime, from the Aquitaine region of France, was selected by materials specialists to duplicate the original lime-sand mortar of the stone structures. Bottom Right: From the upper elevation of the Memorial, the Statue of Liberty Is poignantly visible In the New York harbor.
benefactor's generosity and belief both in historic preservation and in our company, that I wanted to create some sort of perpetual memorial. I knew that the Quakers did not emphasize any individual's notoriety. Instead, they focus on how God speaks to us through each individual and the talents God gives them. On the front page is a photograph of an anamorphic projection of the benefactors. I had the scripture inscribed around the image and baked onto stainless steel. We installed the plaque in a corner which is perpendicular to the wall first receiving light at the spring solstice. A viewing hole was drilled through the two-foot-thick stone wall allowing the light to pass through onto the image.
    The anamorphic projection challenges viewers to understand that what is not quickly evident in a photo or in all of life, begins to make sense when we take the time to study it from every angle. This is my quiet, perpetual tribute to the benefactor and to the Quakers who maintain that the Almighty God is near to us and we can be near to Him if we are still and listen for His voice speaking to our hearts. It is during these quiet moments that God's purposes for our lives can come into focus.		  

    The living Memorial, an original creation of artist Brian Tolle, is a replica of a parcel of Irish farmland replete with a famine cottage, stonewalls, native Irish plantings and "lazy beds" (potato furrows). Thomas Slack, formerly of Attymass Parish, County Mayo, Ireland, was born and raised in the cottage and donated both the cottage and the stone walls for use in the project. Stone by stone, the cottage and walls are being painstakingly reconstructed, working from photographs that were taken before the cottage was dismantled and shipped to America. Materials specialists in England searched the world over and found St. Astier to be most appropriate for duplicating the properties of the original limes and mortar of the cottage. deGruchy Masonry is glad to be New England's exclusive supplier for the St. Astier Lime used for such an important and symbolic reconstruction in America.
    In other news, deGruchy Masonry has been enjoying the use of Virginia Lime Works' wood-fired lime putty to re-plaster and re-point museums such as the John Henry Antes House in Montgomery County, PA. Henry Antes was instrumental in the construction of many of the Moravian settlement buildings in Bethlehem, PA, during the middle 1700s. To learn more about the use of lime for masonry restoration work and information about the upcoming American Lime Conference 2002, visit www.valimeworks.com.
    Thank you for reading our newsletter. We are anxious to hear from you and hope you will contact us if your church or historical society has a need for intervention to save its historical masonry structures from further deterioration. For expanded stories, additional information, and photos, visit www.degruchymasonry.com or call me at 215-536-4482.
    Be sure to attend the American Lime Conference 2002 in Virginia (Jan. 26-27) for a compilation of lectures presented by some of the most respected authoritative specialists in the world. Visit the St. Astier Network at Restoration 2002 in Boston (March 21-23). See www.restorationandrenovation.com for more information.

May your Christmas this year and the New Year be exceptionally special for you and yours.
deGruchy Masonry Provides St. Astier Lime
Through the extension of an international network of suppliers for the St. Astier range of Natural Hydraulic Limes, deGruchy Masonry now represents 16 states from Pennsylvania to Maine and west to the Mississippi River. We have warehoused several ship containers for our own projects and for those where material scientists and conservators have specified the material. Recently, deGruchy Masonry was requested to supply St. Astier Lime to the stone masons who are building the Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park City, NY. Although the location of the Memorial is only several blocks from the World Trade Center site where terrorists recently attacked our nation, the Hugh L. Carey Battery Park City Authority is moving forward with the construction of the Memorial in an effort to relate the significant impact "An Gorta Mor" (the Great Irish Famine of 1846-1851) had on Ireland and America.