The Campus Center opens its doors

Frost has burned the old year down at Paint Rock, and the new year is stabbing through fallen leaves, looking for light.

In what may be the richest deciduous forest in North America, nothing sits still in winter. The wildflowers have been preparing for their spring explosion, which will begin in days, as pennywort, trillium and trout lilies spread leaves.

If we seemed quiet, it’s only because we’ve been preparing, as well. As the wildflowers peak in March and April, there will be another great opening at Paint Rock: the Research Center non-profit will officially unveil its new campus, centered around the Clemmons house.

As many noted, a center can’t be much of a center without …a center. The Clemmons house, a 6,500 square foot facility with spectacular views of the valley, is only a 5-minute walk from the forest dynamics plot that is the backbone of our research. Those who’ve seen it have long recognized its potential as both a learning and residential center.

Many things had to come together to make that happen. Horace and Elizabeth Clemmons, who’ve encouraged this vision for almost a decade, bent over backwards to work with us on the purchase of their former home.

Patty Gowaty and Steve Hubbell laid the first stone of our research program, and now they’ve laid the first stone of our new campus. Without the contributions of vision, time, interest and now funding from these two great scientists, none of this would have happened.

But we’ve been fortunate to have some pretty exceptional people help us finish this foundation. Johnny Johns, who built Protective Life into one the country’s great companies, and his wife, Nancy Dunlap, who helped build the UAB School of Medicine into a world-class research institution, decided it was time to make this campus a reality. Gates Shaw is the forest-loving Episcopal priest we all need on our side, and it was an unforgettable afternoon when he and Elton Stephens, one of Alabama’s best-known entrepreneurs and philanthropists, sprawled out on the banks of Honey Hollow and promised to help us map out the funding for this project.

Their generous funding – from Johnny and Nancy, Gates and Margot Shaw, and Elton and the Stephens Foundation– helped us nail down the purchase of the property in extraordinarily difficult times, and get it ready to accommodate research, education and science communication this year. Our first big guest entourage will be arriving in May. You’ll be surprised and excited to hear who they are – and we’ll let you know more about that as our agreement allows!

Board member and architect Will McGarity has helped us put together a program to convert this beautiful family home into a residential facility for researchers and visitors. We’ve got codes to meet! Fortunately, it appears we’re going to be able to preserve most of the features that make this such an outstanding building.

We’ve made a big down payment on this effort, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do to secure full ownership and operation of the campus. We’ve got a great team working on it, and we’ll let you know more about that as it progresses.

Covid continues, of course. That limits us all, but we’re hoping to continue to forward carefully, and we look forward to the time in the not to distant future when we are all free to explore the campus, the research and the wildflowers at Paint Rock. Keep watching: It will be a busy year, and we’re all going to get something good out of it.