Sacred Places
St. Mary's Elementary School
A river of hand-painted rocks meandering across a downtown campus.
WHERE
Annapolis, MD
SETTING
Education
PARTNER INSTITUTION
St. Mary's Parish
Visit
Where it is
111 Duke of Gloucester St, Annapolis, MD 21401
What happens here
The garden has offered a moment of respite to countless students, teachers, parents, and passersby over two decades, and has hosted many project-based environmental education programs. Students help maintain the nine rain gardens the parish retrofitted into a 2.1-acre parking lot, deepening their understanding of environmental stewardship and STEM subjects.
HOW IT CAME TO BE
Every stone painted by a student.
01
The Need
The Sacred Place sits in a corner of a downtown K-12 campus, in the kind of urban setting where green space is scarce. The parish's 2.1-acre parking lot was sending stormwater runoff into the adjacent Spa Creek.
02
The Vision
All are welcome at St. Mary's, and the garden was built to embody that principle rather than just state it. Every stone in the river of painted rocks was individually hand-painted by a student, in a creative exercise of inclusion.
03
The Transformation
A colourful river of painted rocks now meanders through the garden. The parking lot was retrofitted with nine rain gardens of native, pollutant-absorbing planting to thwart the runoff into Spa Creek.
WHO TENDS IT
