Dear Houston PCA,

Every great memorial is built not just in broad strokes, but in the smallest ones as well. And as work continues getting the elements of Peace Corps Park ready for fabrication at Quarra Stone Co. in Wisconsin (see our last dispatch for more on that exciting partnership), we want to bring you inside one of the most quietly meaningful moments in the Park’s creation: The carving of the inscriptions on the Park’s granite benches.

This is where the words that carry the spirit of the Peace Corps – its mission, its values, its global resonance – will be given permanent physical form.

As one of the last steps of the fabrication process before the bench segments are transported to Washington, D.C. for installation, the approach marries the best in mechanized and human techniques: Beginning with pneumatic tools to “rough in” each letter, then finished entirely by hand with a mallet and chisel. 

It started last October, when Nick Benson and his studio team made the trip to Quarra to do what can’t be done on paper and carve into the actual Silver Cloud granite that will be used for the Park’s three benches.

A MacArthur “Genius Grant" recipient and one of the world's foremost stone letter-carvers, Nick brings a craft tradition that is centuries old but, in his hands, very much alive.

“We needed to assess how the lettering would lay on the complex curves of the bench,” Nick said. “Doing the mockup showed us there was a little issue with distortion, and that was so valuable to get a sense of what we are dealing with.”

So when the design team visited Quarra Stone Co. in April, this was one of the most important details to review. They brought the sample carvings outside to see them from various angles in the natural light; they poured water on the stone to see how it looks when wet. And it was clear that they would need to apply a treatment to improve the legibility of the carefully chosen inscriptions.

Silver Cloud granite contains flecks of black and grey; there is no pure white in its elegant patterns. So whereas a lighter stone will have good contrast from the shadows that fill in the lettering, this type of stone makes that more of a challenge. Most of the time, the solution involves applying multiple coats of a black, partially translucent coating called lithochrome – think of it like wood stain, but for rock.

Seeing the inscriptions in natural light, against the warm silver tones of the Silver Cloud granite, lead designer Larry Kirkland felt immediately that the black was too stark, too harsh. It competed with the organic, embracing quality of the bench forms rather than complementing them.

“We want to make the lettering not feel like an afterthought,” Project Manager John Grant said. “We don’t want them to hit you over the head. We want the letters to be discovered, just like the rest of the Park.”

In the workshop, John improvised with pencil lead to simulate a softer, lighter effect, wiping some away with a paper towel to test even more subtle versions, but none quite worked.

So Larry proposed breaking convention and using a white lithochrome to fill in the letters, allowing the characteristics of the stone to shine through and creating a lighter contrast instead of a darker one. Samples are now being prepared, and the final decision is one of the last open questions remaining before fabrication can begin.

That fabrication start date, and everything it represents for making Peace Corps Park a reality, depends on you. Every carved letter, every curve of every bench is made possible by our dedicated community of donors who believe that this memorial deserves to be done right. If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to give, or to ask someone in your life to give to this landmark tribute in our nation’s capital, that moment is now.

Yours in service,

Glenn A. Blumhorst
Chief Advancement Officer
Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation

GBlumhorst@PeaceCorpsCommemorative.org

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