Priory's Laura's Blumengarten Wins Statewide Award

The Priory's Laura's Blumengarten, located on Lockhart Street across from the rear of the entrance to our Grand Hall, recently was awarded the pretigious 2009 "Community Greening Award" by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Laura's Blumengarten was chosen from over 80 nominees. The Blumengarten was created at the same time as the Grand Hall in 1995, out of a dilapidated city park. Local landscape designers Pashek and Associates did the park design, which features a Japanese style arbor at its peak. Laura's Blumengarten is named after my daughter Laura, who was 2 at the time the garden was dedicated (now she's 15!), and my father's mother Laura Mae Flaherty Graf, who was taken by cancer in 1957 while she was in her mid-40's.