Frances Morton Froelicher

Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve and Environmental Education Center (http://strawberryhill.org/) had its beginnings in the early 1960s when Hans Froelicher and his wife, Frances, social activists in the Baltimore area, set out to preserve the Swamp Creek watershed of Adams County. Determined to see the properties they accumulated in Hamiltonban Township become an environmental education center, after Mr. Froelicher’s death in 1976, Mrs. Froelicher created a foundation to do just that.

As the founder and executive director of the Citizens Planning and Housing Association of Baltimore, MD from 1945-1969, Mrs. Froelicher believed that with a small professional staff, a large number of volunteers and a great deal of enthusiasm, Strawberry Hill could establish itself as valuable asset to the Adams County community. She managed the land and worked towards establishing an environmental center until her death on December 31, 1994. In her passing she gave Strawberry Hill to the community of Mount Hope, and provided a small endowment to create an environmental education center. The Froelichers’ original 519 acres have grown to 609 and the Froelichers’ mission to provide the community of Adams County with awareness, appreciation, and understanding of our natural environmental and cultural heritage through programs provided by the organization that now operates as Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve and Environmental Education Center are a reality.