Return to Splendor

A week of news cycle emotion can exhaust. Last week, the build-up to the 10th commemoration of the attacks in New York, Washington, DC, and Somerset County, PA may have, for many, overshadowed the actual hallowed memories of that day. Who is invited to “ground zero” and who isn’t? Who should get what place on the podium? Who speaks first and who will feel slighted without sufficient time at the teleprompter?

Protocol and opportunism seemed to cast a tall shadow over raw and honest emotion.

In a sleepy little burg in southern Michigan, a ceremony on September 9, 2011 dedicated a mural that came about through broadly based community support. Near the corner of North Howell and West Bacon Streets in downtown Hillsdale stands a newly added 30’ x 22’ mural titled “Return to Splendor.” The image is homage to Mrs.Wilhelmina Stock and her vision to create a park on their property in the early 20th Century.


From the City of Hillsdale website (http://www.cityofhillsdale.org/departments/recreation/mrs-stocks-park.aspx):

History of Stock's Park
In 1869, Frederick Willhelm Stock moved to Hillsdale and purchased the original gristmill established by John Potter Cook and Chauncey Ferris in 1837. The mill became the largest family-owned plant east of the Mississippi.

F.W. Stock's wife, Wilhelmina, established an extensive park in the lowlands behind their 1902-built home with the entrance facing Bacon Street. Built partially to assuage her grief over the death of four children, the originally named “Willow Park" was transformed with the planting of hundreds of trees and plants, including choice varieties from Europe. Later dubbed, "Mrs. Stock's Park," the gardens, with its two artificial ponds stocked with hundreds of goldfish and connecting bridges, became a Southern Michigan showplace.

Thousands of shrubs and plants were placed along the St. Joseph River and a formal garden with prize roses, azaleas, orchids and many more unusual flowers were placed in the center of the park. Three large water tanks were buried at ground level and filled with beautiful water lilies. Six majestic white swans and six beautiful black swans swam in the ponds. Fountains, forced up by a pump near the gate, flowed along the millrace. And the notorious purple loosestrife was first imported and introduced by Wilhelmina in the park.

The park, maintained by the Stock family, employed mill employees, three gardeners and several Hillsdale College students. It was open to the public night and day. During mornings and evenings, visitors would crowd the fence to watch mill hands feed hundreds of wild ducks residing near the powerhouse cove. A vine-covered rustic arbor was a favorite place along with the tennis courts and the redwood and stone shelter house built by Mrs. Stock's son, Alex.

I attended the mural dedication because the artist, Mary Thiefels, is a friend from the Ann Arbor area. The dedication was a mix of gratitude to groups and individuals; children skipping among those honored; community members taking and posing for photos; and the constant waving away of bees drawn to the lemonade and cake served to the nearly 70 people in attendance.

The community was integral to the creation of the mural as all were invited to paint parts of the mural (Mary had literally turned the wall into a massive “paint-by-numbers” opportunity) and funding for the project came from diverse sources.

There was nothing but happy at the dedication – no politics, no posturing, no egos – in short, no protocol run amok.

Splendor is not a word that I’ve used more than a handful of times – ever. It is, however, one that I will reserve for special times like this dedication, like the small cluster of American flags I saw on a mailbox with the address 911, like the countless quiet tributes that were earnest memorials to those lost that day and in subsequent actions necessary from that day. Splendor is not the pomp and circumstance of vote mongers and media sensationalists.

I like to think that throughout this country, pockets of splendor are growing and the goodness of our citizenry will outweigh the spin-engineered and focus group tested messaging of opportunists.

Congratulations Mary – beautiful work; congratulations Hillsdale – equally beautiful work.