The Greentree Foundation and The Nature Conservancy Receive Annual Award of Stewardship for Greenwood Plantation

Atlanta, GA—January 31, 2005—The Greentree Foundation and The Nature Conservancy received an Award of Stewardship on January 13, 2005, from Thomasville Landmarks for the long-term care and maintenance of historic buildings at Greenwood Plantation. The annual award, presented to local individuals or organizations that demonstrate excellence in historic preservation, was presented at the Thomasville Landmarks annual meeting.

Owned by the Greentree Foundation and managed by The Nature Conservancy since 2002, Greenwood Plantation encompasses nearly 5,000 acres and contains one of the finest examples of an intact old-growth longleaf pine forest—a vanishing natural community that once covered nearly 90 million acres across the Southeast. The property contains approximately 79 buildings and structures, ranging from the main house to warehouses and tractor sheds to simple outbuildings.

“We are delighted to receive this award from Thomasville Landmarks,” said Tavia McCuean, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. “The natural diversity and heritage found at Greenwood Plantation and throughout the Red Hills region is a tremendous treasure for Georgians, and one that The Nature Conservancy is proud to be part of.”

The historic preservation work at Greenwood was selected for the award for the recent “rehabilitation and stabilization of several of the buildings, including the main house, the winter barn and several tenant houses,” according to Lisa Ryan, executive director of Thomasville Landmarks.

A local non-profit organization, Thomasville Landmarks is dedicated to protecting, preserving and promoting the architecture, heritage and history of Thomasville and Thomas County.

“Taken as a whole, the Greenwood Plantation buildings and longleaf pine forests show the rich southwest Georgia history from the late 1820s to the present,” said Sean Coyne, Greenwood facilities manager for The Nature Conservancy in Georgia. “The buildings and the forest are a great lesson in the evolutionary history of land use in the Red Hills, ranging from an antebellum cotton plantation, a hunting plantation, a farm, and now an ecological preserve.”

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The Greentree Foundation is dedicated to supporting charitable, educational and scientific programs. Mrs. John Hay Whitney founded the Greentree Foundation in 1982 after the death of her husband John Hay Whitney. Following the death of Mrs. Whitney in 1998, the Foundation became the owner of Greenwood Plantation. The Greentree Foundation trustees have undertaken to ensure that Greenwood will be used for charitable, educational and scientific purposes, consistent with the wishes of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney.