20/04/2021
Many older cemeteries from the 1850’s through the 1940’s are filled with monuments made of marble because it was less expensive to cut, polish and carve with the tools of that time. Unfortunately, this is why many of those old marble memorials are nearly unreadable today—while granite memorials from the same time, are easily read and show almost no deterioration.
Certain conditions (salt, hydrocarbon and sulfur dioxide pollution) contribute to the decomposition of the calcite structure of marble and allow it to be eroded rather rapidly. Some marbles are more durable than others. Also, dry, rural areas (without major automobile and industrial pollution) are less damaging to marble.
Marble was used almost exclusively before the 1920’s. Then, gradually, better tools and techniques—wire saws, sandblast carving, carbide and diamond tools—allowed more efficient quarrying, cutting, polishing and carving of the harder granite. Today granite has proven the most durable and is the preferred choice of most customers for cemetery headstones.
