Media Information 

For Immediate Release 

Grey Towers National Historic Landmark 

Information Contact: Lori McKean

 (570) 296-9630 
lmckean@fs.fed.us 

Sept. 5, 2011 

Release #19-11 

Grey Towers Offers Ice Cream Social, Free Open House 


MILFORD, PA – Free open house and a re-creation of Gov. Gifford Pinchot’s community ice 
cream social at his Milford, PA, home, Grey Towers, will be held at Grey Towers National 
Historic Site, Milford, PA, on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011. 

The free Open House of the 19th century French chateauesque mansion, scheduled from 10 
am to 5 pm, commemorates National Public Lands Day. Historic films and a special video 
presentation of President John F. Kennedy’s Sept. 24, 1963, dedication of Grey Towers will be 
shown throughout the day. 

The Ice Cream Social, sponsored by the Grey Towers Heritage Association, will be held from 24 
pm and is free and open to the public. “The Ice Cream Social is just one of the many ways we 
re-create how the Pinchots welcomed the community to their private home at Grey Towers,” 
said Barbara Buchanan, president of the Grey Towers Heritage Association. “Strengthening the 
community connection is key to our mission at Grey Towers, and it’s so appropriate to offer this 
on National Public Lands Day.” 

In lieu of a fee, the GTHA requests the donation of a non-perishable food item, which will be 
donated to a local food pantry. 

The US Forest Service will open all three floors of the mansion to visitors from 10 am to 5 pm at 
no charge. 

“In the Shadow of a Man,” the film that documents President Kennedy’s 1963 dedication of Grey 
Towers as a conservation center to carry forward Gifford Pinchot’s legacy, will be shown 
throughout the day. In addition to his two terms as a popular Pennsylvania Governor, Pinchot 
was an eminent conservationist, founding and serving as first chief of the US Forest Service. 

Due to construction, there is no handicap access and no vehicle access to the mansion. For 
more information, contact Grey Towers at 570-296-9630 or on the web at www.greytowers.org 
or www.fs.fed.us/gt. 

CAPTIONS: 

1. Gov. Gifford Pinchot treats a young visitor to ice cream at one of his popular ice cream 
socials at Grey Towers in the 1930s. 
2. President John F. Kennedy dedicates Grey Towers on Sept. 24, 1963, to carry forward 
Gifford Pinchot’s legacy. 
USDA Forest Service, PO Box 188, Milford, PA 18337