Initial funding earmarked for burial ground restoration

REVERE-Rumney Burial Ground’s four centuries worth of history will be preserved with help from the City Council and Mayor Thomas Ambrosino.They plan to set aside $15,000 in next year’s city budget for the graveyard’s restoration.Councilors led by Ward 2’s Ira Novoselsky hope that allocation can be matched for two subsequent years so that half the estimated cost for restoring the burial ground is available.Founded when Revere was still part of Boston, the burial ground is hemmed in on three side by homes and includes the resting places of slaves, Civil War veterans and prominent early North Shore residents.Time and weather have taken their toll on some of the graves while others still retain their finely etched outlines of angels of deaths and weeping willows.Novoselsky and Veterans Services Director Nicholas Bua said the grounds’ pathways and stone walls need attention. The graveyard underwent its last major renovation in 1978.