 The Youth Enrichment Center (YEC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to positive youth development, nature-based education, and stewardship of the unique agricultural landscape of New England. We are based in Southern Maine at York County’s Hilton-Winn Farm, a King’s Grant farm dating back to the 1700s. The farm’s current 48 acres of rolling fields and forests, along with the recently renovated house and barn, form the unique facilities to achieve our mission: “ to provide a country farm experience to enrich the hearts, minds, and spirits of children.” Our nature and farm-based education programs serve thousands of children, teens, and families from southern Maine, coastal New Hampshire, and the Merrimack Valley, Massachusetts. History of Our Site The Hilton-Winn Farm is a stunning piece of Maine property whose first inhabitants were the Algonquian-speaking Armouchiquois Native Americans. The site first came under English colonial influence in 1620 through a land patent from King James 1 to the Plymouth Council for New England. It appears that English settler Edward Winn acquired a royal land grant of the property in or about 1640, and by 1710 his grandson Josiah Winn had settled 10 acres of land there. The property—which grew to over 200 acres—was farmed by eight generations of Winns, and then Clifford Hilton (Ada Winn’s son) purchased the farm in the 1940s. Over its 400+-year history, the Hilton-Winn Farm has been a witness to the changing cultural and environmental landscape of Southern New England. Its early inhabitants were likely participants in the colonial French and Indian Wars, and since then the property has supported a range of economic activity that reflects Maine history. It has been used variously to cultivate many different kinds of vegetables, fruit orchards, raspberries, and blueberries, to run a logging sawmill and a blacksmithing operation, and to raise chickens and dairy cows, among other activities.   Recent History In the 1990s, as the rural qualities of southern Maine life were being threatened by rampant development, Ethel Hilton (Clifford's wife) was keenly interested in preserving the woodlands, wetlands, and agricultural character of the property for future generations to enjoy. In 1998 she donated 185 acres of the property to the York Land Trust, which now forms the Hilton-Winn Kings Grant Conservation Area. Then, in 2002 YEC Executive Director Nancy Breen purchased the remaining central 48 acres of rolling fields and forests from Mrs. Hilton’s daughter Nancy, in order to establish a place where children could experience their past, present, and future connection to the natural world and participate in farm-based educational activities. Between 2002 and 2007, Breen and YEC supporters renovated and rehabilitated the old farmhouse and barn in order to create safe and appropriate facilities for the new educational mission of the Hilton-Winn property and its nonprofit Youth Enrichment Center: “ to provide a country farm experience to enrich the hearts, minds, and spirits of children.”  |
 189 Ogunquit Rd Cape Neddick, ME 03902 207-361-1385 Directions Mailing Address: P.O. Box 574 Ogunquit, ME 03907 |
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