Thanks to a grant, Langley’s historic cemetery will undergo some improvements and preservation efforts.

Earlier this year, the Langley Woodmen Cemetery received an award of $12,900 for work related to protection and security, restoration and preservation, interpretive displays and benches. The grant comes from the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

The original three-acre cemetery was established in 1902 by the Modern Woodmen Lodge. The deed was transferred to the city of Langley for a mere $10 in 1913. In 1995, when the little cemetery was in danger of being sold, nonprofit organization Friends of the Langley Woodmen Cemetery was founded to save it.

Many historic people are buried in the cemetery, including Helen Coe, Langley’s first female mayor, and Mary Shelton, a high-born member of the Coast Salish Snohomish Tribe who settled Brown’s Point with her husband, Portuguese immigrant Joseph Brown.

Today, the cemetery is a peaceful little place, bordered by trees and furnished with many benches for visitors to sit upon. Unique objects decorate gravesites, from stone fairies to sculptures of dancing rabbits to a model train. Green burials, which started in 2010, are highly sought after.

Romeo Enslow, chairperson of the city’s citizen-led Cemetery Board, said work has begun, and that it’s a matter of sourcing the objects and finding out what can be afforded. The goal is to improve signage in the cemetery, to build more historically similar benches and to construct a storage shed for work tools and cleaning products.

“Preservation’s what we’re really trying to focus on in this effort,” he said.