Skye Roberts, a junior at Valley Regional High School, is leading a project to uncover and restore one of the original, decorative fountains at Fountain Hill Cemetery in Deep River.

“We’re very encouraged that Skye, as a high school student, should take an interest and want to take on this very ambitious project,” said Rich Forristall, president of the Fountain Hill Cemetery Association.

Skye Roberts’s idea to uncover the fountain came about during a visit to the cemetery with her father, historian Jerry Roberts. At the time, it was covered with dense vegetation.

“It was a total cap over of poison ivy, raspberries, grape vines, a whole lot of black birch and other tangled stuff,” said Jerry Roberts.

The site was also used as a rubble depository, mainly the stone remnants of a former crematorium that came down to make way for a modern maintenance building.

“I thought it would be nice to help clean up part of it for the cemetery so that when people walked down to see the graves down here, they’re not visiting right next to an old dumping ground,” said Skye Roberts. “I thought it would be nice to restore the original fountain.”

Roberts and her friends Julia Donahue, Paige Lee, and Aster Bryan started to clear the vegetation this fall, with Forristall helping to move the stones with machinery.

“We moved all of the brambles and dumped them down the hill over there and then I think one or two trips ago, we uncovered a part of the outline of the fountain, which was really exciting,” Roberts said.

“When we started out, you couldn’t see any of this, no evidence of the old fountain,” said Jerry Roberts, gesturing toward the stone fountain wedged into the dirt.

“We just knew it was under here and so now that you can see a bit of the fountain, people are starting to realize it’s more than just kind of an idea,” he added.

Skye Roberts said the next stage of the project is continuing to remove the stones, rocks and, dirt to eventually uncover the remaining circular perimeter of the fountain.

“By spring, we’ll rework the soil and rearrange the rocks so they are in a nice ring around the fountain and probably plant some flowers in the middle so people can visit a garden,” Roberts said.

Jerry Roberts said, “Once you see this, it’s a worthwhile project and this is such a natural amphitheater, and I can see a day when, again, the lower trees are cut down, the old grands are stayed, the sunlight comes through. I could see there being recitals down here. I could see this becoming an interesting spot.”

A Piece of History

Rhonda Forristall, curator for the Deep River Historical Society, said the cemetery was laid out by George A. Read, the son of George Read, who owned the ivory manufacturing business Pratt, Read & Co.

“It was the young George who was said to be an artistic type and have an eye for beauty, and he laid out the initial cemetery,” said Forristall, adding that inspiration for the fountains could have come from the various fountains that were part of the ivory factory complex in Deep River.

“It was named Fountain Hill from the inception, so the fountains had to be part of the original plan,” said Forristall.

The fountain now being uncovered was stationed at the main entrance of the cemetery.

“They would enter the cemetery from Essex Street and come up this windy road to the fountain and there was a road that was circular around the fountain and then it branched off into the rest of the cemetery,” she said.

When part of the property was sold in 1871 to the railroad, “it destroyed the front entrance of the cemetery and that is when they made the entrance off of Essex Street, which is the one that everybody recognizes today,” said Forristall.

There were two fountains and perhaps a third that were original to the cemetery, according to Forristall.

“They were certainly spring fed and gravity fed. There was no power to make them go and they were strictly ornamental,” she said.