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Date: 10/12/2022
GRANBY — A dedication ceremony for the Alice Stewart Memorial Garden at the Granby Free Public library will take place on Oct. 15 at 10 a.m.
The memorial garden was created for Alice Stewart, who passed away in 2021 and gifted a parcel of her property to have the new library built in 2012. According to a press release, the creation of the garden “was a long and loving effort to retain some of Alice’s beloved gardening memories to remain permanently at the library.”
After numerous hurdles and failed attempts by the community to build a new library, Stewart, an avid reader who owned and lived on a large property in town, saw the need and approached the chairman of the library trustees and offered a piece of her land to make it possible. “Libraries are not the most important places to spend their tax dollars on where things are needier like schools and fire departments and things like that. So that didn’t pass several times. Fortunately, this is probably like the fifth attempt to build this library. There’s a lot of stuff involved to have a library built, so if it weren’t for Alice, we’d probably still be in our 800-square-foot library down the street,” said Helen Hurteau, a library trustee and friend to Stewart.
With acres of gardens on her property, after her passing, members of her family, library trustees and the community decided to dedicate a part of the library site as a memorial garden in honor of her memory. Her family decided to transfer a selection of her treasured items such as a picnic rock, a solar stone fountain, her “beloved Tete-A-Tete daffodils,” and Hawaiian Mamane bush along with a section of a stonewall and relocated them to the library site.
Over the course of a year and a half and with the help of a GoFundMe memorial fundraiser that raised $1,500 to offset most of the cost and numerous volunteers who donated their time, generosity and skills, the garden is now complete. Hurteau added, “It took a long time to sort all this out, but things are over the in the library area at this point, and the way we want them, and I’m sure that Alice would be very thrilled to know her unique garden pieces are going to live on in her memory in this site.”
Donations are still being accepted by the Friends of the Granby Free Public Library, and they can be reached at 477-3320. The Granby Free and Public Library is located at 297 East State St.