Pickering Creek Audubon Center’s Something of the Marvelous spring fundraiser for 2025 is a dollar-for-dollar matching challenge with every dollar being matched up to $70,000!
These funds support Pickering Creek’s science and nature education programs in Talbot, Caroline and Dorchester counties for students from at least one grade level in each school system, ensuring that every student in the grade level, regardless of background, has great outdoor learning experiences with Pickering’s talented staff of educators and scientists.
In addition to supporting school programming, these matching gifts help connect adults and families with the habitats and wildlife that call the midshore home, and support summer EcoCamp scholarships. And finally, generous gifts provided by the community to this matching challenge ensure that Pickering is open to the public for free everyday to enjoy the center’s beautiful trails!
Two marvelous donors have stepped forward to collectively offer this year’s dollar for dollar match. Both are long-term supporters of the Center’s work to connect people to nature. Each supporter who contributes over $125 before June 2 will be eligible to explore Peter Stifel’s Hope House as well as the magnificent grounds.
Dr. Peter Stifel has been supporting Pickering Creek Audubon Center for over thirty years, holding Pickering Creek’s first large scale Dine and Dance fundraiser twenty-two years ago as well as Tour Toast and Taste in 2015. That first event was the beginning of a deepening awareness in the community about the important work Pickering Creek Audubon Center does on behalf of its citizenry, especially youth. The programs Pickering provides connect children with birds, wildlife and the Chesapeake Bay watershed while encouraging them to become active participants in restoration efforts to help the Bay.
When asked why he would invite over 200 people to see the inside of his home, Dr. Stifel said he agreed to host the event for the same reason as he hosted Pickering Creek’s first event. “It is important to get these kids out of the classroom and into open spaces with rocks, frogs, crickets, eagles, orioles and mud,” said Dr. Stifel, referencing the many youth education programs Pickering Creek offers. “Peter has supported Pickering Creek in more ways than we could ever count. He is truly a champion of our mission to connect people with nature in this community,” said Pickering Creek Director Mark Scallion.
Attendees will enter the property across from Fairview just outside the village of Tunis Mills. Along the 1.8 mile wooded lane guests will pass the former state champion Loblolly Pine and Cherrybark Oak and sweeping views of Woodland Creek. The final curve brings into view one of the great historic mansions of Talbot County.
Home to illustrious members of the Tilghman and Lloyd families, Hope is one of the genuinely unique dwellings of its day and one of the best executed restorations of the early 20th century. Hope resembles Mt. Clare Mansion, in Baltimore, the home of Charles Carroll and his wife, the aunt of the builder of Hope. Constructed about fifty years after Mt. Clare, Hope’s original configuration consisted of the present central section with shorter roof, with two frame wings connected by “ogee-roofed hyphens.”
The property was surveyed in 1804, and became known as “Hope” in its entirety. Upon the death of Peregrine Tilghman in 1807, the property was willed to his eldest son, Robert Lloyd Tilghman, a wealthy and prominent citizen of the county. Robert Lloyd Tilghman died in 1823, at young age. His widow, Henrietta Maria, and his eldest son, Robert, remained on the estate and managed it until 1863.
“Hope” was then sold to Thomas Crane in 1863, and from that time, the estate passed through many hands. Time did not treat the house well, but William J. Starr rescued it in 1905 for $13,000. At that time, the building was practically open to the weather, and Mrs. Starr complained that her husband had bought little more than a staircase. The Starrs stabilized the central portion of the house, made extensive additions to the hyphens and wings ending up with a structure over 200 feet from end to end. Mrs. Starr laid out a magnificent garden on the waterside. Without their work the house would probably have been lost.
The Starr’s daughter, internationally renowned lithographer, Ruth Starr Rose married in 1914 and lived at “Hope House” until the mid-20th century and began her career by painting nearby residents of Copperville and Unionville emphasizing their daily life and spirituality. A selection of her works will be on display on June 7.
In 1950, the property was sold to Elsworth Ford and Consuelo Vanderbilt. Ford had electric service added to the house providing heat by steam as well as lighting replacing the necessity of the home’s thirteen fireplaces. Upon Ford’s death in 1952, Vanderbilt all but abandoned the home for a life in France.
In 1965, Mr. and Mrs. W. Flaccus Stifel bought and extensively restored the “Hope” estate which had sat largely uncared for over the prior thirteen years. Their son, Peter, a retired University of Maryland Professor Emeritus of Geology, continues to maintain it today as a working farm, a natural haven, and one of the showplaces of Talbot County.
The exterior of the house will showcase three unique cars owned by Dr. Stifel. A 1910 Thomas Flyer, a sister car to the one that won the Race around the World, a 1908 Maxwell and 1923 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Tourer. Photo opportunities with these vehicles will be available.
Guests of Something of the Marvelous will tour several first-floor rooms of Hope House, which are decorated with both colonial and contemporary furniture, art and unique surprises. Ward Bros Decoys, a weight that held the radio aerial from the Hindenburg Zeppelin and highly sought after colonial furniture from the 1760’s are just a nibble of the treasurers on view at Hope.
At the conclusion of the interior tour guests move to enjoy spacious green behind the home, exploring gardens, creek views and a delightful stroll beneath large shade trees beside Hope Cove leading to a viewpoint with expansive views of the Miles River alongside the burial ground of the Starr and Stifel families.
Timed entrances scheduled from 3-7 on June 7th will include complimentary beverages, nibbles, time to explore, and a special thank you gift.
Unlike Pickering Creek’s pre-Covid era Tour Toast and Taste, Something of the Marvelous has no tent, no auction, and no dinners for sale. It is all outdoors- just soaking in the marvelous blooms and scenery of the amazing Hope House!
For over 30 years, Pickering Creek Audubon Center has provided environmental education opportunities to students of the Eastern Shore, moving them from awareness of their watershed to conservation action in their communities. Since establishing a well-reputed elementary education program in partnership with Talbot County Public Schools 25 years ago, Pickering has added meaningful watershed experiences for middle and high school students to our continuum of education along with community outreach education about our region’s unique ecosystems. Pickering Creek reaches the people of the Eastern Shore throughout their academic careers outdoor learning experiences that encourage them to continue interacting with the outdoors frequently.
School groups, families, wildlife enthusiasts and photographers from far and wide visit Pickering Creek Audubon Center throughout the year to participate in hands-on outdoor learning, volunteer experiences and immersing themselves in the natural beauty of the Eastern Shore.
This year’s Something of the Marvelous is generously sponsored by Bruce Wiltsie and Bill Davenport, Matt Miller and Beth Wehrle, Coard and Sunny Benson, Richard and Beverly Tilghman, James and Ina Van Ness, Mark and Susanna Scallion, Anne and Ron Walker, the Chesapeake Audubon Society, James Olds and Robin Buckley, Steve and Julie Burleson, Kimberly and Glenn Baker, Rodger and Priscilla Waldman, Linda and Peter Yungbluth, Terry and Bill Witowsky and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hill.
More information is available online at www.pickeringcreek.org/
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