School Street Sustainability Park
The Sustaining Landscapes Initiative and Hanover Parks & Recreation are pleased to announce that the School Street Sustainability Park is almost complete! It is truly a place for everyone in our community.
At this park, diverse plantings appeal to birds, butterflies and other creatures great and small; a dry river bed helps manage stormwater runoff from the parking lot behind Gilbert & Town Hall; numerous benches and picnic table invite rest, contemplation and conversation; a ADA compliant path connects School Street with the center of town; and gravel paths offer places for children to run and others to stroll while fencing defines the space and creates privacy. Welcome!
The goal of the park is to provide a gathering place for all members of the Hanover community that demonstrates sustainable landscaping. The only public park in downtown Hanover, it is a place to learn and share ideas about gardening with the earth in mind. The Little Free Gardening Library, built by Ross Farnsworth and Ed Woodbury of Hanover’s Buildings Division, provides a place to share books about sustainable landscaping and gardening practices. If you have an overflowing personal gardening library, please share! Next spring, in addition to more plantings, the committee will install labels that will name the trees, shrubs and perennials throughout the park so that you can explore what might work in your own home garden!
The park is the brainchild of Larry Litten, a longtime proponent of ecological gardening in Hanover. Between 2016 and 2019, when he moved to Maine, Larry not only guided our small committee through the conception, design and the early stages of construction, but he also almost single handedly raised sufficient funds to support the vision for the park. Larry, was especially interested in having a local craftsperson build benches. We are delighted that this past summer, Lee Schuette, a member of the Dartmouth community, installed three hand-crafted Black Locust benches that he designed and built over the past few years. We are also extremely excited that over the course of this winter, Heather Ritchie, a stone carver from Barre, Vermont, will create a 4’x3’x2’ Granite Eastern Box Turtle that will sit near the dry river bed.
None of this would have been possible without the unwavering support of The Town of Hanover and the Sustainable Hanover Committee as well as the numerous foundations, organizations and individuals who donated money, time and expertise to make this vision a reality. Thank you to all those who supported this park. We are also grateful to Asa Metcalf, our town’s arborist, for helping maintain the park and to John Sherman, Director of Parks & Recreation, for promoting all aspects of this project. We are, like this young girl, jumping for joy.
A community park can only thrive with ongoing support and participation by members of that community. We hope that you will consider not just visiting and enjoying the space, but also helping us sustain it into the future. Many thanks go to Judith Reeve, Susan Edwards, and Lyn Miller. To get involved please contact committee chair, Lyn Miller (evelynrswett@gmail.com).