Museum Grounds and Environmental Learning
The grounds of the Gillespie Museum and of the adjacent Rinker Environmental Learning Center are home to the Volusia Sandhill Ecosystem Teaching Landscape, as well as an established Native Florida Plant Landscape, the Hatter Harvest Garden, and Stetson Beekeeping. The grounds also provide outdoor classrooms and supply our Stetson Seed Library.
Explore the Gillespie Grounds
The Rinker Environmental Learning Center is an innovative, high-tech meeting place for museum, Stetson academic, and other campus and community programming, with adjoining resource room and gallery space.
The Volusia Sandhill Ecosystem is an urban restoration in progress. A spot of complex and valuable natural beauty on campus, it is also a unique teaching landscape, and a place of ongoing collaborative research.
The Gillespie Museum Native Florida Plant Landscape surrounds the museum proper. Plant signs on the landscape and an interpretive brochure available in the museum introduce visitors to common native Florida trees and plants.
Hatter Harvest is a student-led, community oriented initiative, promoting sustainable practices in agriculture, with the main aim of maintaining an organic garden on the Stetson campus that grows vegetables, fruit, and ornamental plants. The Hatter Harvest Garden is located behind the Rinker Environmental Learning Center.
The Stetson Seed Library is a small, ever-changing repository of collected seeds, representing species from both the Volusia Sandhill Ecosystem and the Hatter Harvest Garden. A variety of hand-packaged seeds are available to the Stetson community and to the local gardening public as seasonal supplies last.
Stetson Beekeeping is a campus club of like minded individuals with a passion for beekeeping, honey, and everything in between. Their cluster of hives is located behind the Gillespie Museum.