Greenwich's conservation community gathered in mid-July beside the Red Barn at the Greenwich Audubon Center to celebrate decades of shared stewardship and rally support for the barn's next chapter. The structure, located on the center's backcountry campus at 613 Riversville Road, housed the country's first Audubon education center when it opened in 1943. Audubon plans to restore it to its original footprint as a three-season space for environmental education, community gatherings, and programs honoring the property's history.

Kim Gregory, chair of the Greenwich Audubon Center Advisory Board and a member of the town Sustainability Committee, organized the evening and addressed the crowd under a tent beside the barn.

"The reason I asked you all here is just to say thank you," Gregory told the group, according to a Greenwich Sentinel report published Thursday, July 17. "Everybody in this tent, one way or another, has helped over the years keep this place going."

Side additions to the barn have already been removed. No timeline or fundraising target for the full restoration has been publicly announced. At the ribbon-cutting for the campus's Zebediah Mead House in August 2025, center director Rochelle Thomas called the Red Barn a building that "holds an especially meaningful place in both Audubon's and the Greenwich community's history" and said Audubon hoped to launch a campaign to restore it to its original footprint. That Mead House renovation, completed in July 2025 after work that began in February, was funded by an $869,000 bequest from Reinhold Vogel.

A network on display

Gregory's guest list mapped the breadth of Greenwich's conservation community. Representatives from the Greenwich Land Trust, Greenwich Tree Conservancy, Greenwich Riding & Trails Association, Historic Properties of Greenwich, Hortulus, Green Fingers, Brunswick School, Greenwich Academy, Greenwich Garden Club, and Green & Clean filled the tent. Audubon staff stood alongside people who had worked at the center in the 1990s.

State Rep. Tina Courpas attended, as did District 10 Representative Town Meeting member Michael Howe. Dr. Gregory Kramer, Greenwich's superintendent of Parks and Trees and tree warden, was thanked for sharing his knowledge.

Volunteers were recognized for work at the Gimbel Sanctuary, trail maintenance, the butterfly garden, and the restored apple orchard. Hortulus members created Birds Feeding Neighbors, a vegetable and pollinator garden on the Audubon campus that sends fresh produce to Neighbor to Neighbor each summer.

When the tent looked bare that morning, Gregory called Troy's Garden Nurseries. Within an hour, a truck arrived with plants, shrubs, and hay bales. She also thanked Ceci Brothers, Sam Bridge Nursery & Greenhouses, McArdle's Floral & Garden Design, and Murphy Brothers Contracting. The Study Fine Wine & Spirits created the evening's "Barn Raiser" cocktail, and Happiness Is Catering was recognized for years of support.

Gregory honored Anne W. Semmes, the Greenwich Sentinel's environmental reporter, who received Audubon's 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Environmental Leadership Awards Benefit on Tuesday, June 3, at Tamarack Country Club for more than four decades of conservation journalism.

The evening ended with a group photograph beside the Red Barn. Gregory called for one more picture and one more promise: restore the barn, then return for a celebration.