New Jersey Audubon spent a year and a half rebuilding Lorrimer Sanctuary at 790 Ewing Avenue. It celebrated the reopening on June 25, 2026, in the sanctuary's 70th anniversary year. The coming weeks are the building's first holiday season since that work. The fall calendar fits the time of year. It includes hands-on workshops, two evening sessions, a morning of birdwatching from the new raised platform, and the first Holiday Art & Makers Market in Lorrimer's history.
All of it is built around what the renovation added, and all of it falls between mid-November and mid-December.
What a year and a half of construction added
According to New Jersey Audubon's July 9, 2026 announcement, the early work modernized the electrics and lighting, installed a new HVAC system and renovated the bathrooms. The later stages added:
- A fully updated and expanded education wing, fully accessible, with accessible bathrooms
- An outside deck and a second-story observation platform
- A modernized paved driveway with permeable parking for school buses and a rain garden
The money came from individual gifts, an anonymous key donor and the Winifred M. and George P. Pitkin Foundation, $2.1 million in total so far. It also paid for a new expanded classroom named "In Honor of Tom Gilmore." The project had been in the works for years. In 2023, NorthJersey.com reported a $1 million gift from the Pitkin Foundation toward a planned $3 million education center.
"We are thrilled to provide more opportunities for connections in Bergen County," said Alex Ireland, President and CEO of New Jersey Audubon, in the organization's announcement.
The building is still the historic main house. Parts of it date to the late 1700s, and the sanctuary was bequeathed in 1956. Around it are 14 acres of trails, a nature store and gift shop, a winter bird-feeding station, and a lecture and exhibit room. The renovation updated how the house works without moving it off its wooded lot of oak, maple, ash and beech.
The calendar from mid-November to mid-December
From mid-November on, the borough's community events page lists this sequence at Lorrimer. Each program is ticketed through Eventbrite.
- Saturday, November 14, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Natural Dyes for Beginners shows how to dye fabric with foraged black walnuts, pokeberries, goldenrod and avocado pits. Participants take home a hand-dyed textile. Tickets were listed at $20 to $21.89.
- Sundays, November 15 and 22, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. The last two Awesome Autumn Sundays sessions bring families in for art projects and nature walks that change from week to week.
- Wednesday, November 18, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Shannon Mayernik of Mayernik Kitchen leads Boost Your Immunity with Medicinal Herbs, an herbalism workshop on immune-support herbs and simple routines for the winter months. Tickets were listed at $20 to $21.89.
- Sunday, November 29, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Holiday Art & Makers Market, Lorrimer's first, brings local artists and makers selling handmade, nature-based artwork and gifts. Admission is free.
- Starting Thursday, December 3, 6:30 p.m. Seasonal Wreath Making Workshop sessions combine building a holiday wreath with learning to identify New Jersey's native evergreens and their ecology. The workshop is aimed at teens and adults.
- Sunday, December 13, 10 to 11:30 a.m. Coffee and Birds means a morning of birdwatching from Lorrimer's new observation deck, with a different coffee or cocoa each month. Bringing your own mug is welcome.
The order matters. The two workshops before Thanksgiving teach skills, with a foraged dye bath and an herbal routine for winter. The makers market on the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the first event of the season organized around buying gifts. The wreath sessions follow four days later, and the December coffee morning closes the run on the deck the renovation built.
Where the new deck fits into winter
Coffee and Birds is the only program on this calendar that names a new structure as its setting. The listing describes it as birdwatching from "Lorrimer's new observation deck." The series ran in October and November too, so December 13 is the last date on the 2026 schedule.
December is a natural time for it. Lorrimer's site features include a winter bird-feeding station. In early fall the sanctuary ran a Bird Feeder Cleaning Day, charging $5 per feeder and giving 20% off a bag of birdseed ahead of birdwatching season. The renovation's raised second-story platform gives that winter season a vantage point above the ground.
Hours to plan around
Lorrimer runs on two clocks: one for the trails and one for the building.
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Trails | Daily, dawn to dusk |
| Nature Center and Gift Shop, Monday and Tuesday | Closed |
| Nature Center and Gift Shop, Wednesday | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. |
| Nature Center and Gift Shop, Thursday to Sunday | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
These are the current hours from New Jersey Audubon's Lorrimer page. Bergen County's environmental-centers directory still lists a summer schedule. Lucy's Trail is wheelchair accessible, which pairs well with the accessible education wing for visitors who want both the trails and the indoor programs.
In mid-December, sunset comes well before 5 p.m., so the dawn-to-dusk trail window is shorter than it is at any other point in the year. The Wednesday hours, open until 7 p.m., are the one weekday when the building stays open after dark. The two 6:30 p.m. programs, on Wednesday, November 18 and Thursday, December 3, are the evening events on this calendar.
The Saturday before, at Veterans Plaza
The Lorrimer market arrives right as Franklin Lakes' own outdoor market wraps up. The borough's 2026 Farmers & Artisan Market at Veterans Plaza, 745 Franklin Avenue, runs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and its scheduled final day is November 21.
That puts one week, Thanksgiving week, between the last Saturday at Veterans Plaza and the first Holiday Art & Makers Market on Ewing Avenue. For a resident shopping locally, the season moves from one site to the other. The farmers and artisan market on Franklin Avenue through November 21 gives way to handmade, nature-based gifts at Lorrimer on November 29.
Seventy years in, with a new wing
Lorrimer's 70th year has meant a completed construction project, a June reopening and now a winter schedule that runs on the building's new rooms and raised deck. Planning for the education center goes back to at least 2023. The November 29 market is the first time it hosts a holiday market of its own. The listing puts no age limit on the market, but children under 16 need an adult with them.
The paid workshops are booked through the Eventbrite listings above, and the market is free. The wreath sessions begin December 3 and the coffee morning ends the run on December 13, which packs three of the season's programs into the two weeks after Thanksgiving.
At Tony Nabhan Collective, we keep track of the places that set the pace of the year in Franklin Lakes, from Veterans Plaza on Saturdays to Lorrimer's new deck in December, because they shape how a home there is lived in and valued. If this season has you thinking about your own property on these quiet, wooded streets, Request Your Free Home Valuation and we will give you a clear, discreet read on where it stands.
