Historic Christ Church-Recent Preservation Projects: Judith Armistead Carter Tomb

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Judith Armistead Carter Tomb: Cleaning, Examination, and Analysis

To combat the effects of biological soiling, a condition common in warm, moist climates like the Tidewater, Norman Weiss (pictured here) and Irving Slavid cleaned the Carter tombs with an architectural antimicrobial. They applied the product with hand-held pump sprayers, allowing it to stay on the tombs' surface for several minutes before scrubbing it with wet brushes and rinsing with a small pressure washer.	Irving Slavid uses a small brush to wash an original section on the northeast corner of JAC's tomb. The removal of the accumulated biological matter allowed for the close inspection and analysis he and colleague Norman Weiss would undertake on each tomb.
Norman Weiss uses a large brush to scrub the original limestone panel on the north side of JAC's tomb. This panel was used to create a cast replica on the south elevation during the first restoration of the Carter tombs in 1927.	This photograph shows the cast replica on the south elevation the day after Weiss and Slavid's cleaning. Because the antimicrobial agents work over time, the full effects of the cleaning would be seen in the weeks following Weiss and Slavid's visit, as the appearance of the Carter tombs began to improve dramatically.
East elevation after cleaning.	North elevation after cleaning. Though the panel is cracked in several places, both it and the two corners here are original, as are the corners on the south elevation and the panel on the east. Of the eight pieces to Judith's tomb, only the south and west panels are cast replicas. Her actual coffin lies in the ground beneath her tomb.