We recognize and acknowledge that the Schuylkill Center stands on the Indigenous territory known as Lenapehoking, the traditional homelands of the Lenape, also called Lenni-Lenape. We honor the Lenape and other Indigenous stewards of this landscape, past, present, and future.

The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education opened its doors on July 1, 1965, as the Schuylkill Valley Nature Center. 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. We were one of the first environmental education centers located in a major American city, offering immersion in nature to students, families, and adults all within the city of Philadelphia.

Since then, we have been a regional and national leader, pioneering urban environmental education with innovative programs, the country’s most ambitious environmental art program, the area’s only wildlife clinic, Pennsylvania’s first Nature Preschool, and a commitment to stewarding our land.

Today, the Center continues to offer environmental education to our communities through four interrelated core program areas: Education, Land Stewardship, the Wildlife Clinic, and Environmental Art.

With a long-standing tradition of environmental education, the Schuylkill Center has figured into the life and imagination of many generations of Philadelphians – as a place to play, explore the woods, observe natural phenomena, and escape the urban and suburban built environment.

In the past decade, Schuylkill Center has radically expanded its programs and educational offerings. It is home to an established nature-based preschool, regularly continuing education seminars, and classes as well as large-scale public events and festivals. They have undertaken a series of environmental art installations in order to broaden our understanding of natural processes and provoke public dialogue about conservation and environmental stewardship.

The new masterplan responds to the increased need for strategic and thoughtful spatial organization, better trail system legibility, increased connection to the surrounding neighborhood, and a programming vision for some of the Center’s most under-used yet important assets. The plan builds on previous planning efforts, elaborating on some of the ideas that continue to have traction, while also threading new directions and emphasis that respond to today’s challenges.

Click here to read the Schuylkill Center Masterplan

Learn more about our projects, accomplishments, and our community of supporters in our yearly impact reports.

• 2024 Impact Report
• 2023 Impact Report
• 2022 Impact Report
• 2021 Impact Report
• 2020 Impact Report
• 2019 Impact Report