INDIANAPOLIS – Lots of people have volunteered to clean graffiti off the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. The agency in charge appreciates it, but it would rather you not:

There are historic preservation issues with Monument Circle and other memorials vandalized in the weekend protests. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is limestone, which is porous. Indiana War Memorials executive director Stewart Goodwin says just scrubbing with soap and water drives the spray paint in deeper.

Indiana War Memorials has a contractor treating the monument with a special chemical which allows paint to be removed with warm water. He says the cleanup should be done in a few days if there are no further incidents.

Goodwin says other vandalized memorials, including those to Medal of Honor winners and the U-S-S Indianapolis, have the opposite problem: the granite used in the memorials can be easily scratched.

Goodwin says even professional cleaning of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument comes at a cost. He says every round of cleaning shaves off some of the century-old monument’s lifespan.

 

 

COVER PHOTO: Soldiers And Sailors Monument downtown Indianapolis courtesy Indiana War Memorials