By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

CUMBERLAND — On Memorial Day of 2004, Consuelo “Gil” Perez was having a cup of coffee in Woonsocket when he decided on the spur of the moment to visit the Elder Ballou Cemetery near the site of the former Elder Ballou Meeting house on Elder Ballou Road in Cumberland.

What he found when he arrived made him angry and disgusted: The headstones were overrun with vegetation and the grounds littered with old tires and trash.
The historic cemetery, he discovered, had become a dumping ground, abandoned and neglected.
“There was even on old toilet on the ground,” says Perez. “The grass in the burial ground had grown so tall that it covered most of the headstones along with the information engraved on them.”
Nearby was the rubble from the foundation of the former Elder Ballou Meeting House, which was built in 1749 and then burned to the ground in a fire set by vandals in 1962.
As Perez looked around the area he couldn’t help but feel sad.
“Family grave markers buried under three feet of grass, leaves and debris was all that remained at this historic site,” he said.
Anyone who knows Perez knows he wasn’t about to walk away and let someone else deal with the problem. Perez, a well-known community activist in Woonsocket, decided that day that he would lead the charge to reclaim, restore and preserve the area, and to rebuild the meeting house as a museum.
“It was a junkyard. Someone needed to do something about it, so I thought, why not me?” Perez said.
The first thing he did was to create and register a non-profit entity called Community Support Services, Inc., whose mission is to reconstruct and maintain the old meetinghouse site and adjacent cemetery “and to engage the community in honoring this historic landmark.”
Now it’s just a matter of whether or not Cumberland town officials share Perez’s vision.
He’s already had preliminary discussions with Cumberland town officials and is preparing to make a formal presentation before the Town Council this month.
Adjoining the meeting house lot is an area of about 6.53 acres that is currently fallow and unusable. Perez envisions that space as a community garden with a pond, gazebo, arbor, and flower gardens. Across the street from the meeting house lot and abutting the cemetery is four acres of land owned by Cumberland and a private owner.
“This land is open space and I envision a retreat building, an apple orchard and walking paths,” Perez said.
The first phase of the proposed project will include restoring the cemetery, landscaping, erecting fences and restoring headstone. The second phase will be the construction of a replica of the meeting house which will house a museum on the first floor to protect and safeguard artifacts and the history of the community.
“The museum will be used to educate current and future generations regarding the history and culture of the local community,” Perez said. “We want to maintain the rustic and historic ambience of the area and teach each new generation of citizens the values and meaning of life as previous citizens experienced it back in the early centuries.”
Perez and his organization of volunteers, who have cleaned up the cemetery, are hoping that if the Town Council approves the project they can begin the task of fundraising and seeking out grants to help pay for the project.
“This is without a doubt, significant historic and intrinsic value encapsulated in this area called Elder Ballou Meeting House road,” he said. “For that reason it is imperative that we concentrate our efforts and resources into realizing the vision of rebuilding, restoring and preserving our ties to the past. In doing so, we honor and respect those who came before us, who laid claim to the land, who lived, worked and raised their families here and who have left us a rich legacy that we call our past.”
Anyone who would like more information about the project or to make a tax-deductible donation can call Perez at (401) 663-3533.