Parks and Recreation: Butterfly House
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation: Butterfly House
{monarch} Experience the region's most beautiful butterflies & flowers
*Please keep in mind that the Butterfly House is an outdoor facility and will therefore be closed during any inclement weather, including excessive heat advisories and precipitation. Butterflies are best observed in dry, warm and sunny conditions. For updates, please call the park office at 610-942-2450, Option #1.
In the fall of 1998, the Downingtown High School Ecology Club applied {Butterfly} for an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant. Upon receiving $5,000, the Club contacted Springton Manor Farm and the two organizations cooperatively designed and constructed Chester County's first public butterfly house. The goal of the house is to educate the community on the importance of butterflies and how individuals can create their own gardens to help provide habitat for these special creatures.
The Butterfly House is home to many different species of butterflies, both native to Pennsylvania and exotic species. The Butterfly House provides educational opportunities for all ages, learning styles and audiences. House Hosts will guide you through the butterfly habitat, sharing all sources for water, food and shelter during each of the life stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis/pupa and butterfly.
TOUR INFORMATION: Guided tours of the Butterfly House are available for groups of 10 or more and must be scheduled in advance. Please call 610-942-2450 x224 for more information.
*Before visiting us, please keep in mind that the Butterfly House is an outdoor facility and will therefore be closed during any inclement weather. This includes excessive heat advisories and precipitation. Butterflies are best observed in dry, warm and sunny conditions. For updates, please call the park office at 610-942-2450, Option #1.
{Kip}
“Kip the Caterpillar" has his home at Springton Manor Farm’s Butterfly House, where there are plenty of plants for him to eat and eat all day.He can’t be happier!He helps teach everyone about butterflies, their life cycles and importance in the environment.
{Lines}
Butterfly House Takes Wing
By Catherine Brown, Ian Currie, Kristen Moon, Glenn Nelson and Diane Womer
Fall 2002
The quote "If you build it, they will come," from the movie Field of Dreams, is about a baseball diamond. We did not build a ballfield, but rather the Downingtown Area School District Ecology Club and Chester County Parks & Recreation Department envisioned a butterfly house with surrounding meadows. Well, our butterfly house is now built and operational. We hope YOU will come see our "dream come true." The house is open from early June to the end of September. Experience the bounty of beautiful butterflies for yourself!
In the fall of 1998, the Downingtown High School Ecology Club applied for a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Upon receiving five thousand dollars, the club contacted Springton Manor Farm, and the two organizations cooperatively designed and constructed Chester County's first public butterfly house. The goal of the house is to educate the community on the importance of butterflies and how individuals can create their own gardens to help provide habitat for these special creatures.
Plan & Design: Building the Foundation
With funding in hand, many questions came to mind about constructing the house. For example: What do butterflies need? What size house should be built? Do we include a pond? What kind of walkways should we install? Regardless of all the questions, the whole idea was thrilling and exciting.
Through a series of meetings between Ecology Club students and Chester County park staff, the project stages were discussed. In mid-1999, a vision emerged from these concept and design meetings that would later become a reality in the butterfly house that can be seen at Springton Manor Farm today.
Students and staff spent many hours mapping the project site, drawing up topographical maps, reviewing and developing a house design (actually drawn by a high school student) and groundwork. Through the summer of 2000, the foundation (house pad), amphitheater and surrounding drainage swales were graded. The interior design was finalized and material lists were developed.
With permits obtained for erosion control plans, materials purchased and a plan in place to construct the house, work continued.
During the summer of 2001, foundation work really materialized. House siting and interior electrical and water needs were assessed, allowing maintenance crews to begin the house construction process by driving upright support posts into the ground.
{House Beginning}
Brick pathways with circular areas for the butterfly life stage stations were laid. Next, Club members and volunteers installed the netting. Hour by hour the house was coming alive. The change was quick and exciting. By early summer 2002, the final grading, exterior pathways and llandscaping were completed.
What's next?
'Native Wildflower and Grassed Meadow' construction begins spring 2003 and continues through the fall.
Coming to Life
After construction was completed, the house literally came to life. Different butterfly life stages require certain plants. As caterpillars, they eat the leaves of host plants, and as butterflies they feed off the nectar in flowers from nectar plants, which we carefully selected. During the month of May 2002, the plants were transplanted to the house’s flowerbeds. Several plantings took place with the help of a variety of dedicated people. The four foot deep pond was filled with largemouth bass, sunfish and minnows. By late spring, the flowers started to bloom and then there was only one thing missing-- butterflies!
{House Inside}
Introducing different species of butterflies into the house was more of a trick than we imagined. For the inaugural year, who would have dreamed of needing a permit to receive butterflies! So, while awaiting the permit, we skipped around the Springton fields attempting to net butterflies! It was a successful effort, which kept butterflies in the house until we were able to order butterflies. But when we finally received our shipment, we did not receive butterflies. We received chrysalides, another surprising event! They arrived hot-glued to boards in order to hang upside down and emerge. The entire growth of the butterfly house has been a time of learning and discovery for everyone. There has been a lot of research, explaining and learning to get the house ready for public display.
Bountiful Butterflies: A Natural Teaching Resource
Imagine exploring with all your senses, finding all the different life stages of a butterfly, and discovering tips and resources for your own backyard butterfly garden in one place. Well, you can accomplish all that and more with a visit to our butterfly house.
The butterfly house provides educational opportunities for all ages, learning styles and audiences. House Hosts will guide you through the butterfly habitat, sharing all the sources for water, food, and shelter during each of the life stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis/pupa and butterfly.
As an educational service, we are continuing to develop programs for all audiences. Programs for pre-schoolers to senior citizens, from day-care centers and day camps to assisted living facilities are offered. For school teachers and home schoolers, we offer educational programs designed to help meet the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Academic Standards for Environment and Ecology, especially at the elementary Grade 4 level benchmark. For your use, lesson plans have been written to meet those standards and material kits have been prepared.
Butterfly house tours and educational programs are available June through September. For more details and to register for a program, please contact Springton Manor Farm at (610) 942-2450.
Parks and Recreation