Did you know that Green Mountain Audubon Center is the oldest operating nature center in Vermont? We opened our doors for an open house on September 19th and 20th 1964. 100 people visited us that first weekend. Now we welcome thousands of visitors from around the world every year!
An early photo of our sugarhouse and sugarbush, purchased in 1969
The Green Mountain Audubon Center is located in present-day Huntington, Vermont, and sits on land which has served as a site of sustenance, community, meeting and exchange among Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. The Western Abenaki [A-ben-A-kee] are the traditional stewards of its forests, lands and waters, which they call Ndakinna [in-DAH-kee-NAH], or “homeland.”
The land was used as farmland for many generations. The Stevens family owned a 150-acre dairy farm here from 1894-1942. In 1944, Christine Hires, of the Hires Root Beer family, was vacationing in Vermont and had fallen in love with the state’s natural beauty. She saw the Stevens farm for sale and bought it as a vacation home, using money earmarked for a new fur coat. When her husband later inquired about the coat she reportedly said, “Oh, golly. I hope you’re not angry, but I bought a farm instead.”
The Education Barn in the early days.
By 1963 Christine was ready to sell her vacation home, but was looking for a buyer who would forever conserve the lands she had enjoyed exploring over the years. Luckily, she found Bob Spear, president of the newly formed Green Mountain Audubon Society chapter. In 1964 she officially sold the land to the Audubon chapter “for education of the public in the value of preservation of wildlife and the conservation of natural resources…”
An early education program at Beaver Pond!
Today Green Mountain Audubon Center currently sits on 255 acres of conserved bird habitat with approximately five miles of free, public hiking trails and a Bird-Friendly Sugarbush. Audubon Vermont, the state office of the National Audubon Society, manages the Center and its lands. The farmhouse is now our Visitor Center, welcoming guests from around the world. The dairy barn has been beautifully renovated into a welcoming space for summer camps, education programs and community groups.
We look forward to many more years of stewarding these lands for the benefit of birds, wildlife, and people. We hope you will visit us soon!
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It's always a good time to visit the Audubon Center. Trails are open to the public year-round. Visit us daily from dawn until dusk! Donations are appreciated.
