Revere chamber urging contributions to burial grounds restoration

REVERE – The Chamber of Commerce is drumming up interest among residents and business owners who want to spruce up the city’s four century-old burial grounds.The Rumney Marsh Burial Grounds is the final resting place for some of the city’s original residents including Revolutionary War soldiers like Minuteman leader Samuel Sprague and “fighting parson” Phillip Payson.Founded when Revere was still part of Boston, the burial ground is hemmed in on three sides by homes off Butler Street. Its graves also include 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 burial markers while others still retain their finely etched outlines of angels of deaths and weeping willows.The graveyard underwent its last major renovation in 1978.The City Council and Mayor Thomas Ambrosino last December proposed spending $15,000 in next year’s city budget on graveyard restoration work.Councilors, led by Ward 2’s Ira Novoselsky, hope that allocation can be matched through 2010 so that half the estimated cost for restoring the burial ground can be met.Contributions to the Rumney Marsh Burial Ground Restoration Committee can be mailed to c/o East Boston Savings Bank, 575 Broadway, Revere, MA 02151.