Gorham’s Civil War Monument sits on the USM campus. Robert Lowell/American Journal

GORHAM — Noah Miner, chairman of the town’s Historic Preservation Commission, Tuesday asked the Town Council to amend an ordinance to include four town historic sites.

The commission is seeking a new category in the town’s Historic Preservation Ordinance for historic sites to include the old burial yard on South Street, the town clock, Civil War Monument and the Founders Monument. The Town Council voted 7-0 to forward the proposal to its Ordinance Committee to review.

Miner read a brief history of the four treasures sites written by another commission member, Bruce Roullard.

Toppan Robie donated the town clock, housed in the First Parish Congregational Church, in 1868.

Robie in 1865 also donated a Civil War Monument that stands in front of the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery. Dedicated in 1866, it’s a memorial to Gorham soldiers who lost their lives in the Civil War.

The red stone Founders Monument contains inscriptions about the early settlement of the town. The monument is on South Street in front of the municipal center.

Land for the old burial yard was a gift from Joseph Hamblen in 1770, and many of the early settlers were interred there. Miner said the cemetery’s stonewall needs repair.