More than a century ago the Hilltop was home to a tuberculosis sanatorium that included several large buildings on Verona’s western ridge. When the buildings were demolished, heaps of bricks were left, pretty much in place. Now, the VEC would like to put them to good use again.
The commission wants to recover the historic bricks to form a small pathway at the pocket park planned at 42 Grove Avenue. It’s looking for volunteers who can pry the bricks out of the woods on the Hilltop and stack them on pallets. The Verona Department of Public Works will pick up the pallets during their regular work week and deliver them to Grove Avenue.
If you can help, park in the visitors lot at the Hilltop apartments and walk up the road by the tennis courts into the reservation. The VEC advises volunteers to wear sturdy shoes, long sleeves and long pants, and bring work gloves, or gardening gloves to protect your hands. A water bottle might also be a good idea.
Grove Park is a joint effort of the VEC, Junior Woman’s Club and Verona Historical Society. The land, which is has been owned by the town for 40 years, was a favorite gathering place for community picnics in the early 1800s. After the Civil War, the country doctor who came to serve Verona built his home there and Dr. Henry B. Whitehorne was later honored by the naming of Verona’s high school (now the middle school) in his honor.
