GUILDERLAND — In 2015, John Haluska took it upon himself to start sprucing up Guilderland’s historic markers.

His work caused a bit of a stir when the late Guilderland town historian, Alice Begley, learned that Haluska had already painted 22 markers when she saw a photo of him posing before a half-painted sign in the Sept. 8, 2016 Altamont Enterprise.

Begley had been, said Town Supervisor Peter Barber at the time, in charge of an ongoing process of repainting signs, as needed; signs were picked up by the highway department, Barber said, and taken back to the department’s shop for sandblasting, followed by repainting with paints provided by the state, in the correct colors.

Haluska is now working with the town as highway crew members have repaired broken signs. He continues to spray paint the signs in place, using Midnight Blue and then highlighting the raised letters in Sunburst Yellow.

Haluska considers Begley’s booklet, “Historic Markers in the Town of Guilderland,” published in 1994, which shows an image of each sign and tells the story behind it, to be “a treasure trove of information, information so well researched.”

He is hoping for “triple-digit attendance” when he speaks, through Zoom, to the Guilderland Historical Society on Feb. 17 at 7:30 p.m. about his project.

Haluska explains in this week’s Enterprise podcast that he was inspired to paint Guilderland’s markers after he drove into Greenville more than a decade ago and “was greeted with these wonderfully freshly painted signs.” He learned it was an Eagle Scout project and said to himself, “I’d like to do that for the town.”

The state started its historic marker program in 1926, for the sesquicentennial of the Revolutionary War, and then, after placing over 2,800 markers, ended the program in 1966. Municipalities, individuals, and organizations were then left to maintain the markers. Guilderland now has 40 markers.

Guilderland got its first markers in 1932, Haluska said, because of the work of historians Arthur Gregg and William Brinkman. Those early signs, which acknowledge the State Education Department, are made of cast iron; they hold the paint better, Haluska said, than the more modern aluminum ones.

Because the early signs were subsidized by the state, they cost just two dollars each, Haluska said, while now a marker costs $1,200.

Asked if there were any holes in Guilderland’s marker history, Haluska named two. Because Gregg was from Altamont and Brinkman from western Guilderland, there is a dearth of markers in eastern Guilderland, he said.

Along Guilderland’s major thoroughfare, Route 20, once known as the Great Western Turnpike, the easternmost marker is at the Rose Hill mansion.

Haluska would like to see a marker placed for William McKown, after whom McKownville in eastesrn Guilderland is named. A portion of McKownville has recently been added to the state and national historic registers.

The other hole is the lack of women who are commemorated. Haluska notes only one female is mentioned — for her marriage to William Learned Marcy who became a three-term New York governor. A Jacksonian Democrat, Marcy also served in the United State Senate and as a state Supreme Court justice.

In 1824, Marcy married Cornelia Knower, the daughter of Benjamin Knower at Guilderland’s Knower House. The marker is in front of the house on Route 146.

Haluska notes that he wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor in 2017, asking for female candidates who could be honored with a marker in Guilderland — but got no replies. He’d like to see Lucy Cassidy honored as the main provider for Saint Lucy’s Roman Catholic Church in Altamont.

Haluska also notes that Mary Ellen Johnson, long active in the historical society and the Enterprise’s history columnist, is doing research towards getting a marker that would honor contributions made by enslaved people in Guilderland.

Of all the markers he’s painted, the Henry Rowe Schoolcraft house on Willow Street is Haluska’s favorite historic site in town.

“He was really Guilderland’s gift to the world,” he said of Schoolcraft, calling him a Renaissance man.

Built in the 1700s, not long after the American Revolution, with good bones of hand-hewn timbers, Schoolcraft’s house began to list as its massive center chimney crumbled. It was sheathed in layers of asphalt shingles and more recent vinyl siding. Its roof had holes and its floors had buckled. Ben and Dana Sela have rescued and restored the neglected landmark, living there with their children.

Schoolcraft, born in 1793, served as a United States Indian agent and married the granddaughter of an Ojibwa chief, Jane Johnson, learning the Ojibwe language and culture through her.

“He was fluent in Greek and Latin. He’s a historian. And, in fact, he is the person who found and finally determined where the headwaters were for the Mississippi River,” said Haluska.

Haluska and his wife traversed the country on historic Route 20, traveling from Guilderland to its endpoint in Newport, Oregon. Along the way, they stopped to learn history from roadside markers and museums.

One of the places they stopped was the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa. “They have a Hall of Fame,” said Haluska, which includes “our guy from Guilderland, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.”

Haluska’s interest in the aesthetics of Guilderland doesn’t end with his painting roadside markers. A retired real-estate appraiser, he looks at dilapidated buildings with a critical eye.

Haluska has become a gadfly, regularly attending — or, since the pandemic, calling into — Guilderland town meetings to check up on the progress of getting rid of or fixing town “eyesores.”

He grew up in Milton, New York in southeastern Ulster County, the son of two school teachers. “I have seen crappy buildings in Milton,” he said.

Haluska then worked to get three of the worst buildings in Milton taken down, he said.

He sees his role in Guilderland, the town he’s now proud to call home, as making it look like the gem he feels it is. Sometimes, he says, “You’ve got to be a pain in the ass.”

Haluska concludes on the importance of the historic markers, “Community is built on the work of other folks … You’ve just got to hold that in regard.”