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

FCWC Underscores Importance of SEQR Process

Environmental Partners Discuss Land Use with Legislators

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Federated Conservationists of Westchester (FCWC) this past Friday was exceptionally inspiring. It was stimulating to gather with other like-minded environmental organizations like Westchester Land Trust, Save the Sound, Haub Environmental Law School, Save Buttonhook and more.

FCWC’s 2025 Corwin Fellow made a superb presentation about the urgency of protecting the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process as a precursor to land use. She detailed what’s at risk without diligent environmental review. She explained compellingly that without the application of SEQR, there can be a failure to identify or consider significant adverse impacts in advance. Without the thoughtful investigation tests of SEQR, there is no protection for local wetlands, irreplaceable viewsheds, critical conservation areas, unique local habitats, undisturbed habitat or migration corridors, adjacent water wells, fragile archaeological sites, or steep slopes & erosion control.

Read more here.

Pierrepont Paintings Help JHC Further Explore Early American Portraiture

By Henry Inman, Founder of the National Academy of Design

Two more Pierrepont family paintings have joined our collection. We are indebted to Kathryn Pierrepont Winter, her husband the late Ralph Winter, and their children for the gift of these handsome works. A pair of portraits of Brooklyn Heights developer and merchant, Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont and his wife Anna White Constable have been added to our gallery.  Pierrepont was a key investor in Robert Fulton’s steam ferry service, accurately predicting the explosive transformation and suburbanization that would result from connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1814. He was a descendant of Rev. James Pierpont, a founder of Yale University. Hezekiah reintroduced the original spelling of his family’s name which was French in origin.

Hezekiah and Anna’s portraits are by the 19th century American artist Henry Inman. Born in 1801 to English immigrants, Inman was an apprentice to John Wesley Jarvis (whose portraits of John Jay and Peter Augustus Jay are also represented in our collection.) Inman was a founder of the National Academy of Design, serving as Vice President and later President of this institution whose mission was “to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition.” The Academy included artistic titans like Thomas Cole. Read more here.

 

Jay Estate Gardens Open Now Through November!

FREE Tours, Spring Activities for Families 10am to 5pm

What’s blooming? Find out every Thursday from 10am to 2pm and Sundays from 10am to 5pm with the exception of holidays.

Our gardens are popping with every color of the rainbow! Bring binoculars and add your bird sightings to Ebird or the NY Birding Trail!

Plus if you missed our exceptional exhibit Rich Soil by Kristine Mays you can still enjoy one of the most eloquent pieces in the collection.

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Help us empower and educate kids and families! 

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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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