How and when was Wolf Trap Park for the Performing Arts established?
The late Catherine Filene Shouse founded Wolf Trap through a donation of 100 acres of farmland to the U.S. Government, as well as funds for construction of a 7,000 seat indoor/outdoor theater. Wolf Trap’s larger venue, the Filene Center, opened in 1971 as a public/private partnership between the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts and the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Wolf Trap is also home to The Barns at Wolf Trap, the Wolf Trap Opera Company and the Center for Education at Wolf Trap. What is the origin of the Wolf Trap name? As early as 1632 records indicate that wolves caused much damage in the area now known as Wolf Trap. To handle the wolf menace, Virginia offered rewards of tobacco for those who constructed pits or traps to capture and deliver wolf heads to the General Assembly. In an official land survey dated August 17, 1739 the name “wolftrap” appeared as a branch of Difficult Run. Keeping with its history, when Mrs. Catherine Filene Dodd (l
