Pfeiffer Nature Center and Foundation

About Us:

The Pfeiffer Nature Center was established by Wendy Pfeiffer Lawrence to honor her father, Timothy N. Pfeiffer.  It is located in the Portville community where her mother, Eleanor Knox Wheeler, was born and raised.

From her birth in 1925 Wendy grew up spending summers in the village and around the countryside of Portville. In the early 1940′s her father built the cabin on land overlooking ‘Griffin’ valley and thus more excursions into the woods and meadows “up Lillibridge” by family, friends and visitors began.

For over seven decades Wendy spent some of every year in the area, for most of that time with her husband Clive Lawrence. In the twenty years (after the death of her father) from 1971 to 1991 they looked forward to living at the cabin during the summer and early fall months.

Wendy loved to walk the woods. She believed in the inherent pleasure, value and aesthetics of quiet immersion in a forest. Her hope was that such experiences by visitors to this place would instill appreciation similar to that of her own and her family.

In 1998 the Pfeiffer Nature Center and Foundation was established.  It consists of the 188 acres of property donated by Wendy Pfeiffer Lawrence.   In 2002, an additional 460 acres were added to the Nature Center due to the generosity of Col. Charles Eshelman.