History

For many years Stanley M. Rowe, Sr. had the vision of a wooded preserve where children of Cincinnati would be taught to appreciate and understand the natural world. In 1965, his vision became a reality with the creation of Cincinnati Nature Center. With the help of a handful of dedicated and visionary naturalists, including Rosanne Krippendorf Adams, Marian Becker, Kay Benedict, Helen Black, Richard Deupree, Richard Durrell, Rowe Hoffman, Karl Maslowski, Kay Nyce, Fritz Rauh, Louise Rowe, and Louise Tate, the 175-acre wooded estate of Carl and Mary Krippendorf was acquired. An evaluation by the National Audubon Society confirmed the site located in Perintown, Clermont County, which we now call Rowe Woods, was an excellent setting for a nature center.

CNC opened to the public on Sunday, April 16, 1967, with five staff members and more than 300 founding members. The original Krippendorf residence served as the first visitor center and director’s residence. Members had access to the hiking trails and natural history program offerings. School field trips began immediately. As described in the Cincinnati Enquirer Pictorial Magazine from April 1967, the founders believed very strongly that children needed to have a personal experience in nature.

In 1971, the Rowe Visitor Center was opened on the edge of the recently built Powell Crosley Lake. This facility significantly expanded the Center’s capacity for members and school programs. In 1973, Neil McElroy, then Chairman of Procter and Gamble, and his wife, Camilla, donated their 535-acre Long Branch Farm (LBF) in Goshen, Ohio, to Cincinnati Nature Center. They were interested in its preservation as green space and its use in teaching people about the source of their food and fiber. By 1975, CNC membership had grown to 2,000 and the total acreage at Rowe Woods was more than 700 acres. With LBF, CNC now preserved over 1,200 acres.

In 1995, another gift of land in Evendale, Ohio, was made to CNC by siblings Jim and Dorothy Gorman. They were fifth generation direct descendants of the Brown family which started farming this 100-acre parcel in 1835. CNC opened Gorman Heritage Farm in 1996 to tell the story of the small family farm in America. In order to sustain the property and programs financially, it was transferred in May 2004 to the Village of Evendale, which continues its operation and still serving the original vision set forth by the Gormans.

In September of 2004, CNC purchased 235 acres adjacent to Rowe Woods. The Presbytery of Cincinnati had operated Wildwood Camp and Conference Center on the property since 1960, but could no longer afford to maintain it. The property was previously owned by Grace Groesbeck, a close friend of the Krippendorfs. This acquisition expanded our trail system, provided a new home for our summer day camp, preserved a mature forest, and significantly added to CNC’s cultural history of people and the land (see "Groesbeck Estate and Its Cultural Significance" by Jane Stotts for more information).

Today, Cincinnati Nature Center's two sites (Rowe Woods and Long Branch Farm & Trails) comprise more than 1,600 acres of irreplaceable natural and agricultural land. CNC has grown to be one to the top 10 nature centers in the country, while remaining true to its original mission of connecting people, especially children, to the natural world. The words of Karl Maslowski, written in the 1967 Enquirer Sunday Pictorial, are as valid today as they were at our founding. Yet, CNC’s mission is vitally contemporary as Karl’s words are shockingly similar to those of Richard Louv in his 2005 bestseller Last Child in the Woods – Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.

Click here (PDF) to view a timeline of CNC's history written by Jane Stotts, CNC historian and honorary trustee.