Loiselle Memorials

Loiselle Memorials Loiselle Memorials is dedicated to preserving the memories & sentiments of the people of the Glens Falls, Saratoga & Southern Adirondack regions.

Whether through our national award winning designs, our exclusive Rock of Ages partnership or for the fact that Loiselle Memorials staffs the areas only certified memorialist, we are uniquely able to create your story in stone.

Two Thousand Years of Leverage and Legacy. ⛓️🏛️We talk a lot about modern technology in the monument industry—field lapt...
06/09/2026

Two Thousand Years of Leverage and Legacy. ⛓️🏛️

We talk a lot about modern technology in the monument industry—field laptops, digital design software, laser etchers and automated stencil cutters. But when it comes down to the heavy physics of actually handling stone inside the workshop, the trade is very much the same as it was 2,000 years ago.

No matter how advanced the world gets, you cannot negotiate with gravity.

This shot shows a massive granite monument suspended at a precise tilt right in the middle of our shop floor. I am getting it perfectly positioned and prepped before it heads into the sandblast booth for deep-relief carving.

To manipulate thousands of pounds of stone safely without scratching the finish, we still rely on the exact same principles used by ancient architects and builders:

🧵 The Balanced Sling: Using heavy-duty canvas rigging straps to cradle the stone, distributing the weight evenly so it won’t slip or mar.
⛓️ The Block and Tackle: Utilizing manual chain hoists and pulleys to gain mechanical advantage, allowing a single craftsman to effortlessly lift what a team of horses couldn't move.
🪵 The Cribbing: Relying on simple, heavy wooden blocks to support the stone between moves, absorbing the pressure so the granite stays pristine.

There is a quiet reverence in doing things the time-tested way. Every time I pull that chain or adjust a sling, I'm using the exact same hands-on techniques passed down through generations of stonemasons. We build things to last for eternity, so it only makes sense that we use methods that have already stood the test of time.

✨ Spotting a Masterpiece in Stone ✨If you’ve ever walked through an old cemetery, you know that some monuments do more t...
06/04/2026

✨ Spotting a Masterpiece in Stone ✨
If you’ve ever walked through an old cemetery, you know that some monuments do more than just mark a grave—they capture an entire era of design. Take a close look at this stunning, early-to-mid 20th-century marble headstone for the MacLaughlin family. Beyond the beautiful, deeply carved Celtic cross intertwined with intricate grapevines, the typography tells a fascinating story. This lettering is a classic Vermarco—one of the most influential geometric sans-serif typefaces in American monumental history.📜 The Story Behind the Stone: Before "Vermarco" became a standardized alphabet, stone carvers often relied on classic Roman lettering or hand-drawn, gothic-influenced styles. In the early 1900s, the powerhouse Vermont Marble Company sought to create a clean, uniform, and highly legible alphabet specifically optimized for the physical demands of stone cutting and the newly emerging art of sandblasting. The result was Vermarco (named directly after the Vermont Marble Company!).🎨 Why It's Beautiful: Look at the sweeping, perfectly circular curves of the 'C' and 'G' in "MACLAUGHLIN" and "GUITEAU". Notice the unusual, almost square-bottomed 'U', and how every single line maintains the exact same weight. There is an understated, architectural elegance to its geometry. It doesn't rely on flashy flourishes; its beauty lies in perfect balance and absolute clarity.🏛️ Next time you pass an old monument, look past the dates and appreciate the artistry of the hands—and the fonts—that carved history into stone. 🖤

A Carver’s Holiday: Standing Before New York’s First Monument. 🏔️🔨Last summer, my friend Chris told me about a hidden pi...
06/01/2026

A Carver’s Holiday: Standing Before New York’s First Monument. 🏔️🔨

Last summer, my friend Chris told me about a hidden piece of master stone-carving history tucked deep in the Catskills. So, we decided to take a day off from the shop, head down to Prattsville, NY, and hike up to see it for ourselves.

What we found carved into the living rock face blew me away.

This is Pratt Rock, commissioned in the 1840s by Zadock Pratt. Long before modern tools, computerized designs, or heavy crane trucks existed, a master stonecutter named Newcomb Mapes stood on scaffolding against these sheer cliffs for years, manually chiseling history directly into the mountain.

Looking closely at these panels, you can appreciate the immense skill it took to pull these sharp details out of rugged, vertical rock:

📜 The Scroll Work: A beautifully detailed stone scroll dedicated to the Bureau of Statistics, complete with a hand gripping the top and an arm raising a stone hammer.
🌿 The Relief Plaques: Meticulous commemorative wreaths and lettering chiseled into recessed panels right out of the mountain face.
🐎 The Organic Details: Beautifully sculpted horses and circular seals that have braved nearly 180 years of brutal New York winters.

Walking along these cliffs as a monument builder, you realize that while tools and technology change, the human desire to etch a legacy permanently into stone never does. The durability of our craft is unmatched—nearly two centuries later, Mapes' chisel lines are still telling their story.

A huge thank you to Chris Dugan for pointing us toward this incredible spot. If you’re ever down near Prattsville, the hike up to see this legendary hand-carved history is worth every single step.

The Sculptor’s Palette: Painting with Texture and Shadow. 🎨🔨When people look at a monument, they often just see the colo...
05/28/2026

The Sculptor’s Palette: Painting with Texture and Shadow. 🎨🔨

When people look at a monument, they often just see the color of the stone. But to a master craftsman, granite isn't just a solid block—it's a canvas, and different textures are our paint.

Just like an artist uses an array of brushstrokes to create depth, we use a specialized toolkit to change how light and shadow hit the stone. Having the palette is one thing, but knowing how to combine them is where the craft becomes fine art.

Swipe through to take a close-up look at some of our favorite shop "mediums":

🪨 Rock Pitching: Hand-hammered, rugged borders that give the stone its natural, mountain-grown character.
🦷 Pointed-Tooth Chiseling: Creating rhythmic, sculpted ridges that give a monument an elegant, old-world flow.
🔥 Thermal / Flame Finish: Using intense heat to lightly fracture the surface, creating a beautiful, soft matte texture.
🖊️ Stippling & Frosted Finishes: Fine-impact texturing that creates crisp, bright contrast against dark granite.

The Real Magic? The Combinations. > Look at the first photo—that’s a setting sun carved directly into a rich, thermal-finished background. By juxtaposing smooth lines against a textured canvas, the stone actually looks like it's catching the last rays of daylight.

Preserving the Markers of Sacrificed Legacies. 🇺🇸🕊️On Memorial Day, our attention naturally turns to the quiet rows of l...
05/25/2026

Preserving the Markers of Sacrificed Legacies. 🇺🇸🕊️

On Memorial Day, our attention naturally turns to the quiet rows of local cemeteries, where small American flags catch the spring breeze over the resting places of our fallen heroes. But remembrance is also found along the historic roads we drive every day.

We were deeply honored several years ago to handle the restoration of this historic bronze plaque marking the General Henry Knox Trail.

In the bitter winter of 1775–1776, General Knox and his men undertook an almost impossible feat—hauling 60 tons of heavy artillery by oxcart through our local towns, from Fort Ticonderoga all the way to Boston, to help George Washington secure American liberty.

Time and the elements had taken their toll on this monument. Our job was to meticulously clean, restore, and protect the intricate bronze relief, ensuring that the story of that grueling, patriotic sacrifice remains crisp and legible for generations to come.

Whether we are carving a modern tribute, placing a custom veterans' memorial, or restoring a century-old piece of bronze history, our mission at Loiselle Memorials remains the same: we preserve the tangible markers of those who gave everything for our freedom.

Today, we pause, we remember, and we honor.

"Hold that post down!" 🏛️🌲Yesterday, I was walking through the beautiful Evergreen Cemetery in Lake George and came acr...
05/21/2026

"Hold that post down!" 🏛️🌲

Yesterday, I was walking through the beautiful Evergreen Cemetery in Lake George and came across the Parry monument. Seeing it standing perfectly straight and peaceful brought me right back to a frantic afternoon in 1972.

My parents had purchased Loiselle Memorials in 1963 from the original owner who founded the shop all the way back in 1922. In those days, before we had any crane, setting a stone took immense physical effort and ingenuity.

In fact, the 1972 GMC truck (recently posted) was brand new at the time, and it was the workhorse that hauled this exact monument up to Lake George.

To set the stone, my parents assembled a tripod made of metal pipes, hanging a manual system of pulleys from the top to hoist the massive weight. I was only seven years old, tagging along with my brother. As they began lifting the monument into position, the ground shifted under the immense load. Suddenly, one of the heavy pipe legs started lifting right out of the dirt, threatening to send the whole rig crashing down.

My dad frantically yelled to my brother and me: "Hold that post down!" >
There we were—two little kids, putting every single ounce of our weight onto that metal pipe, desperate to keep the rig steady while my parents safely locked the stone into its final resting place.

We held it. And looking at it today, more than 50 years later, it hasn't budged an inch.

If you look closely at the monument (and the original hand-drafted shop rendering in the second photo), you can see the incredible master-level details my Dad poured into this design. Notice the meticulous stippled background hand-textured behind the cross to create contrast, and the elegant tapering of the background as it flows seamlessly from the base of the cross right up to the top apex of the stone.

I left the old paper drawing unedited, wrinkles and all, because that wear and tear is our badge of honor. We’ve been hands-on in these local cemeteries for generations, and we bring that exact same lifetime of care—and history—to every single stone we shape today.

From abstract idea to tangible work of art. 🏛️🔨True commemorative art cannot be mass-produced in a factory or ordered ou...
05/20/2026

From abstract idea to tangible work of art. 🏛️🔨

True commemorative art cannot be mass-produced in a factory or ordered out of a standard catalog. When a completely unique design concept takes shape in my mind, I believe the only way to protect the integrity of that vision is to bring it to completion with my own two hands.

This piece began as a slab of natural sandstone. I selected this specific stone for its exquisite, organic "wood-grain" veining—a natural canvas that demanded a form worthy of its character.

To coax the final monument from the raw stone, I relied on time-honored sculptural traditions:

🪓 The Architectural Split: Utilizing traditional "feather and wedges" to split the stone precisely along its natural grain line.
🔨 Hand-Pitching & Sculpting: Manually chiseling the rugged, rock-pitched borders and refining the smooth, classic teardrop face.
🍂 The Fine Art Accent: The beautiful bronze oak leaf emblem complements the warm, earthen tones of the sandstone.

It is an exhausting, meticulous process that requires absolute patience. If you want a monument crafted with the precision of a fine art piece, you do the work yourself.

On assignment in the Adirondacks. 🌲⛰️We are incredibly fortunate to do our work in some of the most beautiful, peaceful ...
05/16/2026

On assignment in the Adirondacks. 🌲⛰️

We are incredibly fortunate to do our work in some of the most beautiful, peaceful places in upstate New York.

Delivering a monument to an Adirondack cemetery comes with its own unique set of challenges—setting up on inclines, and working precisely between mature pine trees. But looking up from the crane controls to a view like this makes every bit of the effort worth it.

No matter how remote or hidden the cemetery might be, we take pride in bringing our full-service equipment exactly where it needs to go to tell a family's story.

There is truly nowhere else like home. 🇺🇸

It’s more than just "adding a date"—it’s about respect. 📐✨We often get asked how we engrave a final date once a monument...
05/12/2026

It’s more than just "adding a date"—it’s about respect. 📐✨

We often get asked how we engrave a final date once a monument is already in the cemetery. It’s a process that requires a mobile shop, high-tech precision, and—most importantly—an expert eye.

Here’s what goes into a typical on-site engraving:

🖋️ Font Identification: This is the most critical step. I have to personally identify the original font—many of which were custom-cut by different craftsmen years ago—to ensure the new lettering matches.
📏 Precision Layout: Once identified, we use our field equipment to match the "kerning" (spacing) so the new date looks like it was there all along.
🌬️ Mobile Craftsmanship: Bringing the compressor and stencil cutter right to the site allows us to do shop-quality work without ever moving the monument.
🌸 Respecting the Space: We know how much the flowers, vases, and mementos mean to you. Working around these tributes can be a challenge in a tight space, but we take every precaution to protect them while we work.

Our goal is a seamless finish that honors the legacy already set in stone, leaving the site exactly as peaceful as we found it.

05/08/2026

Rain or shine, the spring hustle is here. 🌧️🚛

Yesterday’s delivery was a wet one, but the work doesn't stop. We’re moving full steam ahead to get these memorials prepared and ready for their final homes.

Address

402 Lower Main Street
Hudson Falls, NY
12839

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15187474170

Website

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