Thread: N.C.: Officials work to remove graffiti from church

Posted on Sat, Aug. 30, 2008print email
Officials work to remove graffiti from church
The Associated Press

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. --Officials are painstakingly removing gang graffiti from a 250-year-old colonial church in Winston-Salem.

Officials at Historic Bethabara Park, the site of a German-speaking settlement, said the graffiti that marred the church a week ago can't be painted over because of the building's unique exterior.

"You can't put chemicals on it to take the graffiti off," Ellen Kutcher, the park's director, told the Winston-Salem Journal in Saturday's papers. "It is so fragile. It is the architectural jewel of Bethabara."

"MS 13" - a reference to the violent gang Mara Salvatrucha - was spray painted on the church sometime between Aug. 20 and Aug. 22. Two cans of white spray paint were found by the church's back steps, according to a police report.

The 1788 Gemeinhaus is the only German colonial church with an attached minister's residence left in the United States, according to the park, a National Historic Landmark.

Its exterior is a mixture of sand, animal hair, stones and clay applied over stone. Removing the spray paint involves removing the sand mixture, Kutcher said.

Restoration experts have so far removed about half of the graffiti using a pocketknife and bristled wooden brushes.

Earlier this month, vandals spray-painted "MS 13" on signs and pavement throughout the park, a Moravian settlement.

"Our greatest fear has been that the historic buildings in the park would be defaced," Kutcher said. "This fear has now been realized."

http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/508268.html

Sad that they can't easily fix the vandalism. Hope they catch the punks that did this soon.

Probably not American; and would serve some jail time without fines; then be sent back to their country if ICE will deport them.

How do our elected official feel about on the local, state, and federal levels of government? Chamber of Commerce are you paying to fix this mess that probably non-American damaged?

I find it ironic that the church goes out of it's way to protect illegal invaders and this is the pay back they get! Maybe the church (speaking in general terms - don't know what denomination is) will be happy when this country is turned into a third world cesspool and they can clean up the graffiti, not monthly, but daily!

Well in my city in North Carolina they are letting the inmates clean the businesses up; and the businesses buy the paint.

What about the people City Council?

Wow Winston Salem used to be such a nice city.