HONESDALE, PA — On Friday, August 15, the Honesdale community came togther to celebrate a placemaking project that strengthened the connections Honesdalians feel to the place where they live while turning a pair of stumps into colorful, carved pieces of art. 

“Because of this project, more than 500 people are more connected to Central Park than they were previously,” said placemaker and project manager Lisa Glover. “They took time to dream and to draw and to vote and to paint and watch this project come to life, and we’re all a little bit more connected to this park and to each other through this project.”

The project had its roots in a realization around three years ago, when it was discovered that two trees in Honesdale’s Central Park were in heavy decline. 

Those trees continued to falter, and two years later, Keenan Gruver (founder of Known Grove Sacred Land Stewardship) reported to the borough as part of a Central Park tree inventory that the trees had succumbed to their infections. 

Rather than grind away the stumps, as is usual, Gruver suggested that the borough leave them in place, so that their roots could continue as part of the connection between trees in the park, helping share nutrients between the trees that remained intact. 

After that, a community of artists and advocates got together to turn the stumps into pieces of living art. 

The Wayne County Arts Alliance put out a call for submissions, ending up with 52 pieces of art to choose from for the designs of the stumps. Over 500 members of the Honesdale community voted on the final designs. The Wayne-Pike Realtors Association funded the carving through a placemaking grant program, and woodcarver Larry Wildenstein brought the community’s vision for the stumps to light. And at the end of the process, the community came together again to paint the stumps, with residents as young as two years old helping to put the finishing touches on the project. 

Honesdale Mayor Derek Williams said the placemaking process of the stumps’ design and creation served as a way of getting the public involved from the beginning in deciding what their spaces would look like. 

“It really brings not only the community together to work on the project and come here and celebrate the project, but it brings the community together to share ownership of a piece of public space,” said Williams.