SCRANTON — Frank Dubas’ invitation to Marywood University for its students to help design features at his nonprofit Garden of Cedar community lot in South Side came with a condition.
“I said you can do what you want, but I just have one challenge. The challenge is to design things that have form and function, because we are a garden, and that offer some sort of reverence or respect to the neighborhood that we’re in. I think they’ve accomplished that,” Dubas said Thursday during a ribbon-cutting event unveiling the new features.
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic wall planter system (shown in photo), and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Those features at the garden at 715 Cedar Ave. include native plants, vertical planters, bee nesting “hotels,” and a hydroponic wall planting system and sculpture that pay homage to the city’s history as a cradle of the industrial revolution.
The collaboration broadly engaged hundreds of students over a few years, including in competitions and across several majors — architecture, interior architecture, business, graphic design, environmental science and math, said Michelle Pannone, associate professor of interior architecture.
“These projects don’t just happen, they really do take a village,” Pannone said. “They take the creativity, the passion of the students, the support and mentorship of the faculty, the various departments on campus and collaborators that supported us along the way — and of course the trust and vision of a client that believes in the next generation of students.”
The largest new feature is a T-rail sculpture that represents a key part of the city’s history dating to the mid-19th century, when the historic Scranton Iron Furnaces helped forge the industrial revolution. Still standing from a bygone era, the furnaces at 159 Cedar Ave. originally were operated by the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. between 1840 and 1902. It was the site of the first mass production in the United States of iron T-rails for railroads.
Dubas explained how the sculpture represents the four main rails that were produced at the Iron Furnaces. The large, permanent artwork also has a grid representing a map of the South Side Iron District neighborhood, perforations representing rail lines that run through Scranton, wavy lines for the Lackawanna River and Roaring Brook, and a compass pointing to the Iron Furnaces, the Garden of Cedar and the railyard roundhouse at what is now the Steamtown National Historic Site.
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a T-rail sculpture homage to the city’s iron furnace history of manufacturing rails for railroads (shown in photo behind a planting bed), native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a ‘living T-rail’ sculpture (shown in photo, an homage to the city’s historic Iron Furnaces that made rails for railroads during the Industrial Revolution), native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
“They really, really did a remarkable job,” Dubas said of the sculpture. With the garden having planters also representing the arches of the Iron Furnaces, Dubas said, “There’s a lot of representation, there’s a lot of history here.”
Iain Kerrigan, a 2023 Marywood graduate in architecture, and who was born in Scranton, lives in Old Forge and works in Wilkes-Barre, said he is very grateful to have been involved in the design of the sculpture.
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. Recent graduate Iain Kerrigan, at left, speaks during the event. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
“It’s great to have a positive impact on my local community,” Kerrigan said. “It was a great opportunity for professional development while I was a student studying, which helped me in my career.”
Sara Melick, a Marywood instructor of environmental science, said the collaboration between the university and the garden gave students the opportunity to go beyond the classroom and “really to connect their education with real-world impact.”
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters (shown in photo), a hydroponic wall planter system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Dubas founded the Garden of Cedar in 2018, began construction of it in 2022 and opened it in 2023. The garden features winding, raised planting beds and a planting wall that local residents can use to grow their own vegetables and plants. Dubas also has used the garden for various holiday displays, including having set out for past Valentine’s Days a sea of thousands of large red hearts inscribed with individualized personal messages.
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. Photo shows Yamileth Palafox, 1, of South Scranton, whose family uses the community garden to grow vegetables and attended the event. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
Marywood’s former president, Sister Mary Persico, I.H.M., recalled how Dubas had spoken of seeing a vacant lot at 715 Cedar Ave. and dreaming of putting “something beautiful and wonderful” for the community there.
“You have to understand that things don’t happen in life unless somebody has a dream to make them happen,” Persico said. “And so, if he didn’t have that dream when he walked by this lot, this would not be here today.”
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas, at left, leaning on a bee hotel podium next to a T-Rail Sculpture, and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic wall planter system (shown in photo), and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas, at right, and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic wall planter system (shown in photo) and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters (shown in photo), a hydroponic wall planter system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 16, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. Recent graduate Iain Kerrigan, at left, speaks during the event. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. Photo shows Yamileth Palafox, 1, of South Scranton, whose family uses the community garden to grow vegetables and attended the event. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas, at left, and Marywood students and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a ‘living T-rail’ sculpture (shown in photo, an homage to the city’s historic Iron Furnaces that made rails for railroads during the Industrial Revolution), native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a T-rail sculpture homage to the city’s iron furnace history of manufacturing rails for railroads (shown in photo behind a planting bed), native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
The nonprofit Garden of Cedar in South Scranton collaborated with Marywood University to bring a sculpture, native plants, vertical planters, a hydroponic system and bee hotels to the community lot at 715 Cedar Ave. Garden founder Frank Dubas and Marywood students, recent graduates and professors held a ribbon-cutting unveiling event at the site on Thursday, May 15, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)