Published: 1/7/2019 7:43:34 AM
GREENFIELD — A steel honey comb, a honey bee and Langstroth beehive sculpture, designed and created by Thor Holbek of Orange, have been installed at the pocket park on Bank Row at the pedestrian entrance to the new parking garage.
It is part of the ongoing development of the park with a nod to some of Greenfield’s famous residents.
Greenfield resident Lorenzo Langstroth was an American apiarist, clergyman and teacher who is considered to be the father of American beekeeping. His beehive design, with its movable frames for honey combs, revolutionized the way bees were kept, and is still the standard today. He also served as a pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Greenfield, just across Bank Row from the pocket park.
In addition to the sculpture there is an educational plaque crediting Langstroth with his invention.
In addition, there are dinosaur tracks imbedded in the sidewalk at the park, and an informational plaque touting the history of dinosaurs in the area paying homage to Dexter Marsh, a local laborer who in 1835 discovered what he thought to be bird track fossils in the stone where he was working on the sidewalk on Bank Row.
They turned out to be the first dinosaur tracks found in North America and led to a life time consumed with pursuing more fossils, many of which are on display at local museums in Deerfield and Amherst.
A dinosaur head at one end of a curved bike rack gives the impression of a skeleton while a faux rock impeded with the likeness of fossils, also designed by Holbek, can be climbed on by children as they explore the newest park in Greenfield.