In September of 1718 John Richards, a schoolteacher from Whippanong, New Jersey, deeded three and a half acres bordering the Whippanong River to the town for a church, a school, a militia training ground, and a burying yard. Three months later, Richards had the distinction of being the first person laid to rest in the ground he donated, according to local lore. The picturesque Whippany Burying Yard today contains almost 400 brownstone, marble, and granite markers spanning three centuries, and its age shows. But that’s not always a bad thing.

“Tombstones are this amazing combination of history and architecture,” says Stephanie Hoagland, principal and architectural conservator at Jablonski Building Conservation (JBC), who is working on the cemetery. “Some of these stones are [upwards of] 250 years old, and it’s okay for them to look their age.”