WHITMAN — It is the place where residents can pay tax bills, register to vote or learn more about veteran benefits.

But Town Hall is more than a setting for officials and leaders to gather and conduct the town’s business.

It is also a place to bask in the glory of a chrysanthemum garden or dance with your high school sweetheart.

According to Lars Johnson, a Historical Commission member who is chairman of this year’s Whitman Flower Show, Town Hall, now 100 years old, has been and should be a focal point of Whitman’s social as well as civic life.

Town Hall, 54 South Ave., has been the site of countless balls, concerts, weddings, graduations, proms and variety shows, he said.

More recently, Town Hall has hosted summer concert performances as well as family nights for U.S. Marine recruits as they head off to boot camp.

On Sunday, residents from Whitman and beyond can enjoy a surefire cure for the winter blahs and sample a vibrant sense of community at this year’s Whitman Flower Show, the first to be held in about 60 years, according to the Whitman Town Hall Centennial Committee.

“It’s linking the modern day with yesteryear,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he hopes to bring back a community and Town Hall tradition that dates back to the Whitman Men’s Garden Club and the homespun flower shows of the 1930s and 1940s, in which members would dig up and display chrysanthemums and other garden items during week-long events held in the fall.

“A person can get a wealth of satisfaction out of trees and plants. Plus it’s good for you. It can relieve stress. It gives you exercise. It gives you a knowledge of what you’re doing, the names of things, how to take care of things,” Johnson said.

This year, the Whitman Flower Show takes place on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. About 30 vendors will display items in the auditorium. Guest speakers will present seminars in the lower town hall on topics such as perennial gardening, pruning and maintenance, as well as old and new methods of gardening with trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals.

There will also be drinks and snacks, as well as raffles and other attractions, Johnson said.

“Whoever comes to this show should walk away with something,” he said. “There will be something for everyone.”

On Wednesday, employees from Paradise Water Gardens set up and filled a 2,000-gallon tank in the auditorium in preparation for Sunday’s show.

The display will include fountains, water lilies, plants and Japanese koi fish, said Paul Stetson, owner of the Whitman business.

“It’s a taste of spring,” he said. “It’s just being downtown in our hometown.”

source : enterprise.southofboston.com