Hidden Villa (Organic Farm and Wilderness Area)

Description

Hidden Villa is a nonprofit educational organization that uses its organic farm, wilderness, and community to teach and provide opportunities to learn about the environment and social justice. Hidden Villa stretches over 1600 acres of open space in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Hidden Villa was founded by Frank and Josephine Duveneck, who purchased the land in 1924 and offered it as a gathering place for discussion, reflection, and incubation of social reform. Over the following decades, the Duvenecks established the first Hostel on the Pacific Coast (1937), the first multiracial summer camp (1945), and Hidden Villa's Environmental Education Program (1970). The Trust for Hidden Villa was established as a nonprofit in 1960.

Every year 30,000 people participate in one of our formal programs. An additional 20,000 visitors come to our preserve annually to explore our farm and gardens or to hike on our eight miles of trails. Our constituents cover a wide spectrum of age, physical ability, geography, ethnicity, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and our organic farm, rustic barns, newer sustainable structures and pristine riparian, woodland and chaparral wilderness provide opportunities to experience the beauty of our environment on a first hand basis.