Activities : Grey Towers

Grey Towers is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, first chief of the US Forest Service and twice Governor of Pennsylvania. Pinchot, a dynamic personality with strong opinions, also is known as the father of the nation’s Conservation Movement, having introduced the idea of scientific forestry to America. He worked diligently for progressive causes and the common good with his close friend, President Theodore Roosevelt.

The design of the house is based on LaGrange, the French estate of Lafayette, and also in general resembles a medieval French chateau. The materials used to construct the mansion were mostly from the local area. The roofing slate came from Lafayette, New Jersey. The stone for the mansion was obtained from the site. The hemlock timbers were floated on rafts down the Delaware River from Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania and the decorative bluestone used around the doors and windows originated in Shohola, Pennsylvania. Labor for the house’s construction was provided by local Milford residents and included stone work, plastering, masonry, carpentry, and general labor.

Pinchot’s family donated Grey Towers to the US Forest Service in 1963 and it was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy to be the home of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation. Today, the 1886 mansion designed by family friend Richard Morris Hunt is open to the public for tours and serves as a conference facility for conservation groups and as a center for natural resource education programs. It offers a Conservation & the Arts program, house and garden tours, and other recreational activities, including short hiking trails.

For more details about the trails and activities visit http://www.fs.fed.us/na/gt/