The Historic Crownland Cemetery's wrought iron fence, both facing Monument Street and surrounding individual plots, was torn down recently. No notice was given to the NPA or to citizens.

The reason for fence removal: expensive repairs. It was sold on ebay and is now going to New Mexico. NPA would have gladly helped fund repairs! The fence will be replaced with steel or aluminum, apparently. Many citizens of Noblesville care deeply about preserving that which is already here, including this fence. We would rather have rallied support around repairing the fence then watch it be torn down and replaced with 'new'.

We feel the cemetery board should have garnered input from the community and Noblesville Preservation Alliance before irreplaceably altering such a beautiful place.

From www.chicora.org/cemetery-fences.html: 'Every effort should be made to retain all existing ironwork at historic cemetaries, regardless of condition. Replacement with new materials is not only aesthetically inappropriate, but often causes galvanic reactions between dissimilar metals...replication is not an appropriate choice, and is often done very poorly.'

The NPA works to promote the preservation of historic homes, neighborhoods and resources to enhance the quality of life in Noblesville.