Local man one of only a few in U.S. to do it
He makes dead people in cemeteries ‘come to life’
by Jean-Bernard Hyppolite and Len Lear

Eugene Hough, of Heritage Guild Works of Bryn Mawr, Pa., discusses his restoration and preservation work in the cemetery at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Whitemarsh/Fort Washington, which was founded in the late 1600s. (Photos by Len Lear)

In the 1999 movie, “The Sixth Sense,” a monster hit which was made in Philadelphia by Main Line director M. Night Shyamalan, actor Joel Osment played a boy who “sees dead people.” Well, you might say (taking some poetic license) that Eugene P. Hough, a resident of Evergreen Avenue in Chestnut Hill from 1988 to 2000 who now lives in Bryn Mawr, helps dead people come to life.

Hough, 51, who grew up in Plymouth Whitemarsh, is the sparkplug behind Heritage Guild Works, a company he founded in 1998. Although he studied education, urban planning and health care in college and graduate school, Hough is now one of a miniscule number of people in the U.S. who work full-time at restoring gravestones and cemeteries and in so doing, unlocking secrets of those who have been long dead, in some cases for centuries.

Over the past 11 years, Hough has performed this back-breaking work for 30 cemeteries in the Delaware Valley, other parts of the U.S. and as far away as France and East Africa. Each stone must be meticulously cleaned to bring out the letters that faded many years ago. In many cases the stones themselves have been buried beneath the ground for countless decades. And this work is extremely time-consuming. In fact, Hough recently finished working in cemeteries in South Carolina and Georgia that took him away from Philadelphia for the better part of two years. “Silent cemeteries are the classrooms of the world,” said Hough. “The stories they have to tell us are fascinating.”

For the past four months Eugene has been working in the graveyard at St. Thomas Episcopal Church at Church Road and Bethlehem Pike in Whitemarsh/Fort Washington. This is one of the oldest churches in the Delaware Valley, having been founded in the late 1600s on what was previously a Lenape Indian burial ground. The land had been given by William Penn himself to a friend named Edward Farmar, who turned over the land for the purpose of building a church and graveyard on the premises. Farmar himself, who died in 1745, and his son, Thomas, who died in 1731, are among those buried there.

Bill Potts, chairman of the cemetery board, takes people on tours of the historic three-century-old cemetery. “The township is trying to make a trail of history,” he said, “and the church and cemetery will most likely be part of it.”

The property that houses the current St. Thomas Church takes up 45 acres, of which 15 are used for the cemetery. The church, which was constructed from 1868 to 1882, is the fourth on the premises. The first one, a log structure, was deliberately burned down around 1710. The second one, a stone structure, was torn down in 1817, and the third was torn down in 1868. More than 3,400 people are buried in the cemetery, including 12 veterans of the Revolutionary War and veterans of virtually every other war since then.

There has been so much inevitable deterioration of the gravestones over the centuries because of weather, pollution, etc., that many of the inscriptions could not even be read. Thus, the church’s cemetery board hired Hough to resuscitate some of the gravestones. “We are just delighted with the job he has been doing since

August,” said Bill Potts, chairman of the

cemetery board. “This is historic. The township is trying to make a trail of history, and the church and cemetery will most likely be part of it.”

In addition to his exacting preservation work, Hough is a historical re-enactor and “Son of the Revolution” who dresses up in colonial garb — a red vest, tri-cornered hat, white wig with ponytail, etc. — to give lectures and slide presentations of his work while Potts takes visitors on guided tours of the historic cemetery. (An average of 42 interments a year are added to the cemetery.)

Referring to colonial flags and articles of Revolutionary War clothing that he had placed on selected tombstones, Eugene explained, “This display is for students and other people who come by to give almost a living, breathing look at the stones, hats and clothing. It’s almost arts and humanities here. How do you bring the stones to life?” Eugene proceeds to make a correlation between the dates on the stones and the articles of clothing that lay on top. One stone could have a sword by its side, while another might have a small tunic. 

Hough’s job is to make sure that the memories associated with the stones never fade. “The reality,” he said, “is that because of acid rain and environmental conditions, the heavy build up of organic matter on the surface of the stone acts in a way almost like a sponge, bringing in the salts and other impurities in the air to the stones.”

Eugene uses a process that has no salts. It kills the moss that grows on the stone, but it does not affect the environment. He uses cotton swabs, binoculars and magnifying glasses for delicate cleaning and examinations, and a nylon brush and microbial solution to clean lichen off the stones. “It’s almost like a woman getting a facial. You’re removing the toxins on the surface of the stone, so the stone is now able to breathe.” The cost of restoring a headstone can be between $150 and $500, depending on the size of the stone and the extent of its deterioration. (Hough has also been asked by Whitemarsh Township officials to restore a mile marker across the street from Chestnut Hill College and one near the General Lafayette Inn.)

Eugene uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to identify broken or sunken stones that can’t be seen.  This type of technology helps to uncover missing stones without compromising the ground. And removing organic matter on stones make it possible to identify the long-unseen lettering — designs, names and quotations — on the stones. “There’s something that happens when you work on hallowed ground,” said Hough. “In a spiritual sense, people start communicating who never communicated before. Each time I enter a cemetery, I say a prayer.” 

How did the former Chestnut Hiller get interested in this highly unusual line of work? While spending a year in Sweden studying long-term health care, Eugene noticed a group of small family cemeteries on farms. An elderly woman told him that many small family cemeteries had unfortunately fallen into disrepair. And Eugene, a veteran himself, took a particular interest in the fact that the stones of many World War II veterans were not being cared for. (Bill’s grandfather, also named William Hough, was an architect who helped design the D-Day Monument that currently stands on Normandy Beach in France to commemorate the countless American soldiers who died there during the 1944 invasion.)

Regarding the connection that St. Thomas Church has to Chestnut Hill, Hough pointed out that members of the Woodward and Houston families, who played such a significant role in the building of so many houses in Chestnut Hill, are buried in the cemetery. Eugene also shows visitors the cemetery’s oldest stone. “Here lyeth the body of James Allison, who departed this life October the 25th, 1727, aged 45 years” it says.

“Life was not easy back then,” said Hough, “but the people were very practical with what they had.  You had to, because there wasn’t a lot of money. So, I think there’s a lot to be learned from this. If you’re having a bad day, think of some of these people.”

Eugene, who is married (his wife’s name is Barbara), earned his Bachelors Degree in Education from George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and a Master’s in Policy and Planning at Temple University.  He also had a year of graduate school at Stockholm University in Sweden. For more information, Hough can be contacted at hguildworks@aol.com.