The organization that became Springwater Center was formed on the very last day of 1981. Toni Packer, who had been authorized to teach at the Rochester Zen Center, began to question the hierarchal and authoritarian approach of the RZC and to seek a more open, inquiring way of meditation. After a turbulent period, she left the RZC, and with the help of a large group of supporters formed the Genesee Valley Zen Center.

Initially the group rented a house on Mt. Hope Avenue in Rochester and held retreat at a YWCA camp on nearby Lake Canandaigua. But from the outset, Toni envisioned a place in the country that would be nourishing and renewing for people. A land search committee was formed and in the fall of 1983 property was purchased in Springwater NY.

Fundraising elicited support from members and friends, a member provided a design, and with some hired help, staff and volunteers broke ground for the project in the spring of 1984. At the same time retreats continued at the rented camp. Most members at that point were in their 20’s and 30’s and had considerable energy and enthusiasm for long days of work. Living in tents and eating from a makeshift kitchen in a Quonset hut, staff and volunteers made the building ready enough for the first retreat to be held in April 1985.

In 1986 members voted to change the name of the organization to Springwater Center. A fire pond was dug the same year, that has been featured in numerous photos over the years.

In 1987 a second fund drive was launched to pay off building loans and continue work on the building. During the next decade the building was completed and a garden shed, woodshed and small cabin were also constructed. In its early years, the Center rented a modest-sized house in Rochester where friends and members could meet with Toni. Space was also rented at the Friends Meeting House for her public talks and dialogues. From 1989 onward though, all activities took place in Springwater.

In 1999, the trustees approved a major project to build housing for staff, who had been living and working in close quarters with one another in the main building. Generous donors made it possible to hire out some of the work to professional contractors, who joined staff and volunteers in constructing four cabins over the next three years. Toni’s very active years at the Center were in the eighties and nineties; when she also travelled to Europe and California to hold retreat. The mid-nineties marked the beginnings of a transition as she began to name people who she felt could carry on the meditative work.

The 2000s was an era of transition as Toni became ill and gradually cut back on her busy schedule. The decade saw new voices leading retreats, including Wayne Coger, Sandra Gonzalez, Stew Glick, and Richard Witteman. One-by-one, staff moved into private cabins after two decades of close quarters living. Some familiar faces involved with the creation of the Center moved on from full-time residency, while a new generation of younger people began to show interest in the work of the Center through retreats, volunteering, and joining staff.

Toni died in 2013. A memorial was held and attended by over one hundred friends. Thanks to the strong ongoing support and participation of trustees, staff, friends and members, there was a seamless transition to a Center where retreats and meditative work continued to flourish.