A Giant at the Police Station Doorway

A 745-pound award-winning Atlantic Giant pumpkin graces the entrance to the Swampscott Police Station.

It sprang from soil in a nearby Phillips Beach neighborhood yard and rolled around the New England countryside before arriving to the station.

A week ago Saturday Swampscott resident Tom Keenan was just home from a giant pumpkin show in Springvale, Maine when his neighbor had an idea.  

They were preparing to hoist it from the bed of a pick-up when the neighbor wondered would the police like it in front of their new station.

The police chief liked the idea.

So at 10 p.m., Tom, his neighbor and a couple police officers set Tom's tripod over the heavy orange Cucurbita maxima and hoisted it from the pick-up bed to the ground at the entrance to the Humphrey Street station.

That's where the giant remains.

Tom grew it from seed, a big seed from a big pumpkin. The germinated seed became a plant. And the plant would produce a pumpkin grown big in Tom's backyard on fish fertilizer and lots of water. 

It was the smaller of two Tom grew this summer. The other, a 954-pounder, took 12th place at the Topsfield Fair.

The winning fair entry was a 1,746-pounder from the ground of a Topsfield patch.

The pumpkin at the police station came in 8th place for size in the Springvale competition but was named the show's prettiest pumpkin for its exceptional shape and color.

See the pretty pumpkin this month at the Humphrey Street station.

You can't miss it.