Demick seems born to restoring gravestones, old barns

Peter Demick doesn’t live in the past, but he does appreciate it. Over the years, he has restored 68 old barns across the state, and locally, he devotes time to restoring gravestones in Charlotte cemeteries.

When Demick retired from his work as a stone mason and barn builder last year, he rejoined the cemetery commission while continuing to volunteer on the conservation commission.

“I’m busier now than when I was working,” he said.

Demick had been on the Cemetery Commission before because of his professional work as a stone mason. He learned to restore gravestones when he took a course on monument preservation at Cathedral Stoneworks in Washington, D.C.

“I loved the history and everything that is part of it,” he said.

Demick has passed the craft on to others, teaching monument restoration for at least 10 years across the state. He is a lifetime member of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association.

Charlotte has two public cemeteries. Demick said there are hardly any gravestones left at the cemetery on Spear Street because the occupants were itinerant farm workers whose families couldn’t afford good markers. He said the Barber Cemetery on Greenbush Road dates back to the town founders, with some gravestones from the late 1700s.

Every year, Diane LeBerge schedules a day when volunteers head to the cemeteries for clean-up work. Demick is heartened that there are a number of people in their 30s who take part. He helps restore the stones that are in need of repair. He noted that the lettering on marble headstones tends to fade over time and not much can be done to fix that. Granite headstones are much stronger.

Demick has been on the Charlotte Conservation Commission for three years, trying to find a balance between the need for housing and the recognition that wildlife has a place in town. He put a few wildlife cameras on his 77-acre property and has been amazed by the animals he has seen.

When the conservation commission found itself with extra funds from a calendar sale, Demick bought several wildlife cameras to put around town. He said the conservation commission has received no money from the town budget for the last few years, so he bought a few more on his own and on Front Porch Forum he asked for people to host them.

“An amazing number of people volunteered,” he said.

The result of that project is a 24-minute video which Demick plans to show at the senior center. The video, which was taken just off Spear Street, ends with a family of bears.

Demick has been pushing Charlotte to develop a town wildlife map and said he has been discouraged by the selectboard’s unwillingness to provide funding. He has offered to match any money the selectboard designates.

In 1987, Demick founded his business, Vermont Walkways and Stone. “I fell into it by accident,” he said. “I worked for a guy in Hinesburg for a year and discovered I had a knack for flipping stones and putting them together.”

Demick is probably best known for his barn restoration work. He has rebuilt 68 barns that date back to before 1850.

“I just refuse to let them go,” he said.

Some of the barns have been massive, including one on Leavensworth Road that was 30×50 feet, and another in Johnson that was 40×100 feet and had two cellars. Demick has a rebuilt 1808 barn on his property as well as one from 1840 which he calls his “new” barn. One came from Monkton and the other from Ferrisburgh.

A number of Demick’s reconstructions have been relocated to Charlotte, and he notes that one caveat with his restoration work is he will not move barns out of state. Demick is a seventh generation Vermonter, but as an Army brat, he moved around a lot. He came back to Vermont for college and never left, moving to Charlotte in 2000.

Demick lives on a farm that has been certified by the Northeast Organic Farming Association with 700 grape vines. Tom Kenyon farms two clover fields on the property and Demick keeps bees in a Slovenian bee building which he built using wood from a garage behind what is now Philo Ridge Farm. Demick gives away the 22 to 25 cases of honey he harvests each year but noted that bees are getting scarcer.

Demick has no website and no social media presence, but people seem to find him. “I’m retired,” he said, “but I can’t resist the allure of an old barn.”