Pete Jackson poses with the gargoyles he helped recreate for the new public library. The original gargoyles were badly damaged. Pete carved new pieces to repair the creatures and created resin duplicates to return to their roost atop Bromfield. (Photo by Richard Wolfson)

Perched atop the cupola of Old Bromfield since their installation in 1877, four gargoyles stood guard at the school through 130 years of rain, ice, and snow before construction workers restoring the building discovered that two of the fantastic creatures had survived both the years and the elements. Their existence was a surprise to everyone: while gargoyles are typical of Old Bromfield’s Queen Anne-style architecture, their presence was a longtime secret until a painter found them 80 feet up in the air. After removing them from their commanding view, construction supervisor Tim Wheeler found both were badly damaged: made of yellow pine, the copper nails attaching them to the cupola had caused them to split apart, and the creatures were brittle and fragile. Wheeler immediately called Bromfield Trustee Pete Jackson and told him, “We have a problem here.”

As fate would have it, the creatures could not have fallen into better hands.

Jackson, a craftsman and engineer, took on the project of restoring the gargoyles with the same attention to detail and accurate restoration he applies as Co-chairman of the Library Building Committee. After taking both gargoyles home, Jackson began the complicated process of restoring structural integrity to one of the historic ornaments. The porous wood was filled with wood hardener and epoxy, and a new wing was carved to replace the one worn away by the weather. The newly restored gargoyle now sits on Kathy Jackson’s hallway table, festively attired with a red bow for the holidays.

The restoration of one gargoyle was only part of the challenge, however: after nearly 40 hours of work, Jackson still needed to restore the remaining gargoyle and create two new ones from scratch in order to have another set of four to put on the cupola. In addition, the construction company was about to finish with the crane needed to put the creatures back in place. Racing against time, Jackson contacted Wade Holtzman, who specializes in the restoration and conservation of antique furniture.

A complicated project like the gargoyles is his stock-in-trade, Holtzman said. It was clearly one he relished, too, as he described the process of making an innovative rubber mold that allowed him to make four new resin casts of the gargoyle in just a few days. “It was a lot of trial and error,” he said. Since gargoyle lore dictates that no two should be exactly alike, Holtzman said, he carved slightly different features for each one. Just before the crane was due to be delivered to another site, the four gargoyles were attached to the cupola and took up their rightful place watching over the patrons of the new Harvard Public Library.

Jackson plans to create an exhibit featuring the restored gargoyle, its unrestored cousin, and another resin casting as part of an effort to illustrate the restoration of Old Bromfield.

After the gargoyles were re-installed, Susan Frechette, co-president of the Friends of the Harvard Public Library, had the idea of creating garden statuary from the gargoyle mold. Made of hand-cast cement, the creatures are available for sale from the Friends of the Library at a cost of $100 each. More information on ordering the statues is available at the library.

Library Trustee Roy Moffa, who serves as building committee co-chairman with Jackson, was pleased with the outcome of the project, and said it was a good illustration of the way the building process has proceeded so far. “We uncovered a problem that no one anticipated, and between the construction people, the building committee, Pete and the town, we found an elegant solution,” he said. “Everybody pulled together for a positive outcome.”