About Us

Founded in 1965, The Schuylkill Center is one of the first urban environmental education centers in the country. Envisioning an "island of green" where city dwellers could experience and learn about the natural world, sisters Eleanor Houston Smith and Margaret Houston Meigs, along with their families, donated the extensive parcels of farmland and woods that make up the Center’s grounds today. As our founders intended, the Center is used by thousands of people each year to discover, explore, and study nature.

The Mission

The mission of The Schuylkill Center is to promote, through environmental education, the preservation and improvement of our natural environment by:

• Fostering appreciation, understanding and responsible use of the ecosystem;
• Disseminating information on current environmental issues;
• Encouraging appropriate public response to environmental problems and;
• To maintain the facilities of The Schuylkill Center and conserve its land for the purpose of environmental education.