The Jay Estate in Rye was home to one of our nation's greatest peacemakers, John Jay...

...and today, it is YOUR park

Our nonprofit, the Jay Heritage Center (JHC) is dedicated to transforming the 23-acre Jay Estate into a vibrant educational campus, hosting innovative and inclusive programs about American History, Historic Preservation, Social Justice, and Environmental Stewardship.

More about who we are and what we do

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From lectures on American History to outdoor art exhibits and modern dance to family-friendly concerts on the lawn and garden workshops, your annual gift makes SO much possible! Donations also help fund our academic fellowships which allow students to conduct new, groundbreaking research.

DONATE HEREFree lectures

2024 Fellows

 

 

Video Now Available

40 Years of Climate Change - A Conversation with Andrew Revkin

For your rainy day viewing! Love all the feedback we are receiving about last Sunday’s talk. On November 17, 2024, we welcomed Andrew Revkin, one of America’s most honored, experienced and innovative journalists to talk about his own personal climate change journey – how he has pivoted from telling stories to facilitating more productive conversations about climate risk. In a brand new talk positively received by colleagues like Dr. Julio Friedmann Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct, he shared how we can use more thoughtful language in our communications about goals and turn words into action. We may all come at environmental issues from different positions but whatever our affiliations, there is room for compromise and opportunity for progress to cutting emissions and reducing vulnerabilities. The talk was cosponsored by the Rye Sustainability Committee and generously supported by Alger. Watch the video here.

Photo by Kim Crichlow

 

December 8 at 2pm

A Cappella Concert

Our ever popular a cappella concert! This year featuring Columbia’s Notes and Keys. They are Columbia’s oldest and finest co-ed cappella group. Notes and Keys has a diverse and constantly expanding repertoire of skillfully written arrangements by our own members, which we have performed on VH1, at NYC’s Knickerbocker Club, Yankee Stadium, Dylan’s Candy Bar, the United Nations, Gracie Mansion, and at Lin Manuel Miranda’s apartment. FREE and open to the public. Hot cocoa and treats provided by Jimmy’s Soft Serve.

 

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Land Acknowledgement

It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the land of the Wiechquaesgeck (WE-QUEES-GECK), a subdivision of the Munsee people. The Munsee can be identified as speakers of Munsee, a dialect of the Lenape language. Today, the Munsee language is considered critically endangered, only spoken by a handful of elders on the Moraviantown Reserve in Ontario, Canada, each speaker over the age of 70. Lenape, or Leni Lenape was a name prescribed to them by colonists, rather than a label of initial self identification.
The Wiechquaesgeck were the historic owners of Rye, Harrison, and large parts of Westchester County, as they lived between the Hudson and Long Island Sound. Modern nations like the Stockbridge-Munsee, the Delaware Tribe of Indians, and the Delaware Nation trace their ancestry to the Munsee tribes, and continue to keep their history alive. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all. In the coming years, we plan to reintroduce species of fauna and flora indigenous to the Wiechquaesgeck into our gardens as a way to promote greater respect and understanding of their culture.

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