Reader Offers Helpful Cemetery Headstone Cleaning Solution

By Donna Baker-Hartwell
John Howe, Building Product Specialist at Belletetes, poses with the magical solution for headstone cleaning, in front of a painting by his father, Townsend Howe. Caption and photo: Donna Baker-Hartwell

After reading the coverage in the October Beacon of volunteers working to clean the headstones in our town cemeteries, I was inspired to clean some of

The headstone of Ellen Flanders Tuttle is shown here covered with moss and lichen at Lake View Cemetery. Caption and photo: Donna Baker-Hartwell

our family stones. Many thanks to those folks for their hard work. It can be a difficult task when stones have decades/centuries of lichen growing on them.

I thought that Beacon readers would appreciate a solution I found to make this task easier. I asked John Howe, Building Product Specialist at Belletetes, for help. He was enthusiastic about the use of “Wet and Forget,” an environmentally safe solution. I have applied two heavy sprays onto the moss covered stones. John says all that is needed is a “brushing off” come springtime. I can hardly wait to see the results!