Peace Stones
In the Peace Garden at Birmingham

The granite Peace Stones, located in the Peace Garden at Birmingham, are placed there by private subscription. They express the personal messages of donors in an enduring form for all visitors to read. The messages are in the form of an approved and recognized quotation that relates both to the vision of the Peace Garden and to the personal feelings of the donor. On each Peace Stone, the inscription includes the quotation and its author, but not the name of the donor. A specially made archival Book of Record is carefully maintained in the Birmingham meetinghouse in which each Peace Stone is identified by its inscription. Under this identification donors are encouraged to write a personal message in their own hand, saying who they are and why they have chosen to give a Peace Stone to the Peace Garden at Birmingham. Special archival pens are provided for this message.

The Peace Stones are made of medium-grey Barre granite from Vermont. They are rectangular in outline, measuring twelve inches from front to back, six inches high in the front and eight inches high at the back. Their width is between twenty-four and thirty inches, depending on the length of the quotation. They are placed on a secure base at the edge of the planting beds in the Peace Garden so that visitors can easily read them as they walk by.

A quotation can be selected from a previously approved list that will be provided on request. But donors may choose a non-listed quotation, which will then be reviewed by the Peace Center Committee to ensure that it is correct, that it will fit, and is in keeping with the vision of the Peace Garden.

Peace Stone subscriptions cost $750.00 each, payable as $375.00 with the order and $375.00 when the Peace Stone has been placed in the Peace Garden. Each subscriber will be asked to review a proof before any engraving is started. Orders, once approved, generally take about six weeks to complete.

The Peace Garden at Birmingham, and the Peace Stones it contains, will be under the permanent care and protection of Birmingham Friends Meeting. It will remain a place for all to experience and anyone of any faith, or of no faith, can, through their gift of a Peace Stone, become a part of it.

July, 2005