Last week, Verdi Construction started the work for Catherine’s Learning Barn, a 3,400 square foot educational facility at the Catherine Violet Hubbard Animal Sanctuary.

Projected to be completed in spring of 2025, the first facility on the property will seat about 100-120 people, depending on what the fire marshal determines when the project is completed.

Jenny Hubbard, the president of the animal sanctuary, said, “As we reemerge, what we’re finding is that we’re ready to rebuild our educational work.” She shared that in 2024, the animal sanctuary worked with 412 students, but there were still limitations.

“We’re completely weather dependent,” Hubbard said. The addition of a permanent facility means the sanctuary can host events year-round. Catherine’s Learning Barn will, literally, shield field trippers from the rain and require less outsourcing for venues.

The barn will also feature a full commercial kitchen so the sanctuary will be able to support more kids, more people, and more events. The kitchen was originally going to be featured in the “living building,” but, as Hubbard said, “the kitchen will support all programs here at the sanctuary,” so it was imperative to jump on the opportunity to build it.

The barn is going where the old caretaker’s house was for Fairfield Hills. “We knew this site was where we wanted to do it because we wanted to repurpose this space … We just preserve what needs to be preserved, and revitalize those spaces that have already been constructed upon,” Hubbard said.

“The property is still functional,” Hubbard said. “We are welcoming people to continue to use the trails. We’ve closed a portion of those trails, they’re marked, for the safety of everybody … but the fact that we can still use 80% of the property while this is happening is exciting to me.”

Hubbard told The Bee, “We’ve always been really mindful that this is a community space that people enjoy and they found healing, they find community here, so that doesn’t change.”

Hubbard wants the community to know that she hopes the sanctuary continues to help people “heal, grow, whatever it is that they’re looking for,” and that the barn will be an extension of that for the hundreds of kids that visit the sanctuary’s new learning barn.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.