From a few rocks to a monument: John Tvaroha’s Groton masterpiece

Paul and Louise Tvaroha raised their family here in Groton, but they never could have imagined that their son, John, would grow up with such a fascination for rocks that he would single-handedly build an immense and impressive monument out of them — yet that is precisely what he did last year!

John is a 1973 alumnus of Groton High School (GHS) who ran outdoor track and played football. “In fact,” he said, “I was part of the 1971 undefeated Groton Indians team that year.”

After high school, John was a delivery driver for Baker-Miller Lumber for four years before he went to work for New York State Electric and Gas at the Milliken Station power plant, from which he retired as chief operator/supervisor in 2015.

In the meantime, John raised his children, Tyler and Julianne, who are both alumni of GHS. In fact, Julianne (now Costa) is currently an art teacher in the school district. That connection will come into play later in this story!

From football to golf

“I started golfing and became a member of Stonehedges in 1995,” John said. “Most of my friends golfed, so I wanted to try it. Well, once you get some good shots, you want to get more and keep improving. It’s kind of addicting. It’s fun, but it’s the hardest sport ever if you want to be consistent.”

John shared that he built his own home on Carpenter Avenue in 1987, and that was when he “started liking rocks.” He had moved a couple of one-ton rocks on his property. Then, he put in an inground pool and found more rocks. He ended up using them all as part of his landscaping.

At some point, John, along with some other members of Stonehedges — Clifford Bush, Mike Collyer, and Ed Volpicelli — began clearing a hedgerow to beautify the golf course, exposing a lot of rocks. John explained that those rocks were large, but “had settled into the ground, so we pulled them up to make them look like more than they really were.”

John further explained that the land around the Stonehedges clubhouse, which used to be farmland, looked like a jungle and was very swampy. John cleaned it all out, planted a big tree and built a circle of rocks around it. Before long, however, the tree died.

“I cut the tree down, and a good way to cover it up was with rocks,” John said, “so I decided I wanted to build something there with a ‘wow effect.’ I wanted to build a pyramid, but it was too difficult to cut angles. Those Egyptians were unbelievable!”

The monument building begins…

In January 2024, John brought in seven dump truck loads of old sidewalks and other stone to “fill in the cracks” of the site and then began digging up large rocks of many sizes from behind the #5 and #16 golf greens. He brought them up by tractor, although he said he had to physically roll a number of the larger ones individually.

“I had to build a ramp out of old sidewalks and dirt to get rocks up to each level, but once I got them up to the top, I had to remove the ramp to complete the bottom row of the monument,” John said. “I purposely left a third of the bottom open, where the ramp had to go, because I didn’t want to ruin anything below that I had already done as I was moving rocks up to the top levels.”

By November, John had completed the job and mounted the plaque with his name and the year, 2024, which involved cutting into the face of the large top rock. He also added lights to illuminate the masterpiece at night.

From monument to memorial

John has since prepared some of the other rock faces for plaque mounting. Stonehedges’ operations manager, B. J. Robison, and John Gallager came up with the idea to make John’s monument even more meaningful by making it a memorial to either past members of Stonehedges or those who were significant in some members’ lives. 

So far, John has mounted plaques in memory of Paul E. Dittman and Bob Daugherty, and has begun the process for four more: Stan Burke, Spencer Wing, Tom Phillips and Dan Snyder.

“It takes me six to eight hours to mount a plaque,” John explained. “I have to have it perfect, and you can’t rush it.”

John also buried a stainless-steel time capsule within the monument, containing a proof set of 2024 coins donated by the First National Bank of Groton, newspapers, memorabilia from Stonehedges and a photo of the land before the golf course was built.

“The whole thing is very satisfying,” John said, “but I recently got a phone call from my daughter, Julianne, who told me that a first grader drew my monument in one of her art classes. That made me feel really good!”

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com or text or call Linda at 607-227-4922. 

In brief:

Movie night at GPL

Groton Public Library will host a movie night on the big screen, showing Lilo & Stitch (2025), rated PG, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19. There will also be pizza available.

McLean steak dinner

McLean Community Church, 50 Church St., will offer its famous Delmonico steak dinner from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20. The $25 dinner also includes baked potato, salad, vegetable medley, beverage and homemade pie! Eat in or take out. Reservations highly recommended by Sept. 19 by calling 315-496-9432.

More at the library…

The following presentations will be held at the Groton Public Library:  

• Civil service education will take place at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19.
• Credit Management and Fraud Prevention for Teens and Parents with Kim Maercklein, Consumer Education, New York State Division of Consumer Protection, a credit management class, will happen at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24.
• Safe Talk Suicide Prevention: Register for a safeTALK training event about effective ways to recognize,  talk with and support those struggling with thoughts of suicide. Register at tinyurl.com/mh-training for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27 or 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29.

For more information, contact director@grotonpubliclibrary.org or call 607-898-5055.