WEST SPRINGFIELD – This all started when Bryan Burlingham was out in Park Street Cemetery looking for Revolutionary War-era headstones.

“I saw the condition of them and I thought, well, I feel like there’s something that can be done to kind of restore them and make them look healthier,” said Burlingham. So he researched how to perform restoration works on historical graves and monuments, and sought permission to go about cleaning them.

It was the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown. He had been laid off from his job as a security guard at MGM Springfield and like many people then, he had an abundance of free time. So, with a nylon brush and a bottle of D/2 – a pH-neutral quaternary ammonium solution with surfactants designed specifically for cleaning stone monuments – he got to work.

“It just kind of spiraled from there,” he said.

On his Facebook page “Bryan’s Gravestone Restoration,” he methodically catalogs the graves he has cleaned, and in the process ended up “retelling the stories of residents who lived in the town over the past few hundred years.”

Now he volunteers with the West Springfield Historical Commission, researching the town’s history and digitizing a trove of 18th century photos and documents. He’s hoping to create a complete timeline for the town from 1624 to 2024, in time for the 250th anniversary of the town’s incorporation in 1774. He hopes his efforts will inspire pride and appreciation for West Springfield.

“It’s allowed people to appreciate the town’s history, and maybe in return they’ll try to take care of the town a little more and want to keep it clean,” said Burlingham. “I mean, you’ll see some areas are just covered with trash and whatnot, but this is just my way of having people appreciate the town a little more, and try to maintain it and keep it healthy and vibrant.”

Burlingham said gravestone work isn’t as simple as scraping off dirt or scrubbing with soap, as with modern materials.

“Generally, a Revolutionary War-era stone is going to be predominantly made of sandstone, and sometimes marble,” said Burlingham. “You have to make sure the stone is in proper condition to even like brush it, for sandstone around here. They generally hold up pretty well around the rest of the country. But they’re kind of in poor condition in West Springfield, because [they’re made from stone that’s] more porous. So what you can do is knock on the center of the stone to see if it’s hollow on the inside, and check for marks of erosion or delamination. If there’s just pieces of it falling apart, you don’t want to brush it at all, or even touch it, because you might add to the damage. But you can spray it with D/2, which is basically the only recommended product for headstone restoration work, and it will kill all the moss and help it look healthier.”

To learn more about West Springfield history, Burlingham recommends visiting the West Springfield Town Museum at 55 Altamont Ave. The museum is free to the public and open the first Saturday of every month.