Ms. Henry's roots in Lewisboro and her interest in land preservation are long and deep.
The daughter of Earl and Kathyrn Smith of Mead Street, Ms. Henry is one of six generations of the founding Meads to live in Waccabuc, now residing only a half-mile away from the home she grew up in with her parents and two brothers, Tim and Christopher.
Ms. Henry's ancestors were preservation pioneers, assembling about 1,100 acres along Mead Street and around Lack Waccabuc.
"My grandfather worked with Gifford Pinchot and my father, a graduate of Yale Forestry School, was a land steward before that label even existed," Ms. Henry said. "My parents cherished their 100 Pine Croft Farm. We had 24 milking cows, and they grew vegetables, flowers and had hay fields for the animals. The old dairy barn still stands."
Ms. Henry said her childhood in Waccabuc was steeped in the enjoyment of all things natural.
"My brothers, cousins, friends, and I roamed and rode around the fields on our ponies," she said. "There was a large cornfield on Post Office Road and an orchard on Schoolhouse Road. What is now called Pine Croft Meadow, a Westchester Land Trust Preserve, was the pasture for our dairy herd and my pony, Hilda. Meadowlarks nested in the fields and pheasants appeared in autumn. We believed it would always be that way."
Ms. Henry left Waccabuc for a while to attend Smith College. She then moved to Manhattan to work, married her husband, Jim, and started a family of three: sons Stephen and Nick, and daughter Sarah.
"We moved back
here in 1969, into a house built by my great-great-grandfather," she
said. "Development hadn't really taken hold quite yet but was soon to
follow."
Here's a link to the whole story. It's a good read.