Stop by our visitor center to explore our exhibits, both inside the building and nearby. Here you can find our environmental art gallery and gift shop, and just outside the door discover Rain Yard, our solar panels, and Tall Trees Nature Playscape.


Discovery Center

This interactive children's exhibit allows visitors to explore what they will find on the trail before heading out for a hike. Children can test their knowledge about nature while having fun as they learn about honeybees, types of trees, how insects and animals use camouflage, and different bird calls. The Discovery Center features multiple hands-on activities like our Discovery Boxes and indoor bird blind, which offers a view to our Sensory Garden bird feeders.



Environmental Art Gallery

Located inside the Visitor Center building, the indoor Environmental Art Gallery highlights changing exhibits by professional artists and often compliments outdoor sculpture installations. The Center exhibits between four to five shows annually by a range of artists, including local and regional artists as well as experienced and emerging ones. Click here for more information about the Center's Environmental Art Program and any current exhibits.


Rain Yard

An interactive artwork in our Sensory Garden, Stacy Levy's Rain Yard was installed in 2013. This innovative artwork serves both a practical function–mitigating stormwater runoff from our building–and an interpretive function–highlighting the critical role that soil and plants play in the water cycle.

Every time we get 1 inch of rain, RainYard captures and slows over 3,000 gallons of water. With the average of 40 inches of rain Philadelphia gets per year, it captures and slows nearly 100,000 gallons. More on Rain Yard here.


Sensory Garden

Our Sensory Garden, in the courtyard behind our visitor center, is planted with a carefully selected mix of native plants, designed to offer interesting sensory experiences throughout the year. In the Sensory Garden we also stock several birdfeeders and are home to a beehive (see the inside of one in the Discovery Center).


Tall Trees Nature Playscape

A play space specially designed to foster nature-based play for young children, Tall Trees Nature Playscape offers a sand pit, a mud kitchen, logs, and more opportunities for hands-on nature play. The playscape is available to the public on weekends and weekdays after 3:30.


Green Roof

Located on a portion of the visitor center roof, this vegetated roof system was installed in 2005 and provides a variety of benefits. Widely known for its ability to reduce stormwater runoff, the green roof also extends the life of our roof and provides wildlife habitat. With funding from the McLean Contributionship, the Center was able to retrofit a 2,215 square foot area of its roof with a 2 inch deep Flower Carpet green roof design by Roofscapes, Inc. Watch in the summer as the small purple flowers open each afternoon, bathing the green roof in a flush of magenta.


Solar Panels

Our Solar PV Array is hard for visitors to miss as it is located directly adjacent to the visitor center front. The 10.2 kW system was installed by Mesa Environmental Sciences, Inc. in May 2006. The array reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a total of 24,759 pounds per year. This exhibit installation was made possible by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Energy Harvest and the Sustainable Development Fund. The Solar PV Array is an excellent exhibit to visit for those interested in sustainable technology and is available for viewing year-round, depending on weather conditions.


Call 215-482-7300 for more information