LEICESTER, Mass. — Every day, roughly 20,000 drivers pass by a monument on Route 9 in Leicester. Perhaps only a handful, though, can tell you why it’s there.

“It’s the Knox Trail where Henry Knox went to Fort Ticonderoga, captured some cannon from the British and literally drug them back to Boston,” Leicester Public Library Director Suzanne Hall said.

It’s part of the local history in Leicester. Hall said people come in weekly with questions about Leicester’s past.

"Some of them can be answered by monuments, but some of the questions we get are about 'who are the service people that our squares in town are named after and where can I find more information about those folks,' ” Hall said. 

She’s now in the process of digitizing town markers and monuments on a national database with help from businessman Phil Olivo.

“I got to the veterans squares, the Gold Star squares, and they were deteriorated. The names were hard to read, and I just didn’t feel right posting those online,” Olivo said. “I went looking for history about them and I couldn’t find it.”

Olivo said the memorials are there for a reason, and each veteran’s story deserves to be heard. He’s working with the Cherry Valley American Legion Post 443 to track down as much information as possible about the servicemembers and plans to install QR codes at each of the town’s 19 Gold Star veteran memorials.

“I think a lot of people look at these monuments today and think it's ancient history and it has no relevance to today,” Olivo said. “They don’t know what they are and they drive by them constantly.”

The codes will look similar to the one already in place at the Revolutionary War memorial on the town’s common. 

Olivo said the project will honor the town’s history, those who served and help young people better understand the future.

“History has lessons for the future, and that’s really where I want to be,” Olivo said. “If the youth isn’t engaged in a level that they’re interested and understand with the QR codes and those types of things, history is going to be lost, and that would be a shame to see.”

Olivo is recruiting local businesses to help revitalize each memorial. Leicester students will also help organize the historic information online. Olivo said the goal is to have squares cleaned and QR codes installed by Memorial Day 2025.