Events & Calendar

Event Description

See and learn about live animals, enjoy games and make-it, take-it crafts and food at the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums’ annual GroveFest on Saturday, June 24.

GroveFest celebrates nature and wildlife and takes place on the grounds of Spiegel Grove, an arboretum and the estate of 19^th U.S. President Rutherford and First Lady Lucy Hayes.

The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

GroveFest features hands-on activities and crafts at booths with regional nature organizations. Activities are geared toward kids ages 4 to 10, but all ages are invited to participate. Nature organizations attending are:

• Nature’s Nursery, which will have live education animals
• Back to the Wild, which will have live education animals
• Shooting Star Farms, which will have a petting farm
• Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which will have live invasive sea lampreys
• Black Swamp Bird Observatory
• The Yoga Haven
• Birchard Public Library
• GLCAP
• Old Woman Creek
• Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial
• Ottawa-Sandusky-Seneca Solid Waste District
• Camp Fire Sandusky County
• Sandusky County Park District
• Sandusky County Public Health
• Sandusky County/PCC Coalition
• Sandusky County – WIC
• Celery Gardens of Woodville
• Whispering Meadows Garden Club
• ProMedica Total Rehab
• Seneca County Park District
• Toledo Zoo
• Lucas Soil and Water Conservation District
• Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio
• Jaws with Paws
• Sandusky County Visitors Bureau
• Sandusky County Early Intervention
• Catawba Island Historical Society
• Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
• Terra State Community College
• Pottery Perfection
• Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Hot dogs and ice cream will be available. Donations for food are accepted but are not required.

South Creek Clydesdales also will offer horse-drawn trolley rides through Spiegel Grove. 

Rides will be available from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $3 for ages 13 and older, $1 for ages 6-12 and free for kids 5 and younger.

No reservations are taken. The rides last about 10 minutes.

Visitor parking is off-site only with the exception of those who have handicapped tags for their car. Parking will be available on the street and in ProMedica Memorial Hospital’s parking lots at Buildings A and B, located at 605. Third Ave. Spiegel Grove is a short walk to the east of the hospital parking lots.

GroveFest is an opportunity to enjoy nature at Spiegel Grove and to learn about Rutherford and Lucy Hayes’ love of the outdoors. The couple raised cows and chickens and planted trees on their beloved estate.

Lucy Hayes’ enjoyed fishing, and she loved nature so much that her official White House china had images of the flora and fauna of the United States, from deer and raccoons to fish and lobsters.

The title sponsor for GroveFest is the Randolph J. & Estelle M. Dorn Foundation. Partial funding by Amcor Cares Foundation; The Andersons; ProMedica Memorial Hospital; Walmart Fremont; Walmart Port Clinton.

Hayes Presidential is America’s first presidential library and the forerunner for the federal presidential library system. It is partially funded by the state of Ohio and affiliated with the Ohio History Connection. The Hayes Presidential Library & Museums is located at Spiegel Grove at the corner of Hayes and Buckland avenues.

For information, call 419-332-2081, or visit rbhayes.org. Like HPLM on Facebook at @rbhayespres and follow on Twitter and Instagram at @rbhayespres.

Back to All Events