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.

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September 19, 3:30pm - 5pm

America at 250 for Educators

JHC is proud to welcome educators to our site during September 2026, Constitution Month, to commemorate our nation’s journey towards independence and democracy. The free program is co-sponsored by the Mid-Hudson Social Studies Council. The event will be the first of many lively conversation about America at 250 with some of our country’s leading history scholars. It is open to teachers throughout the Mid Hudson and Sound Shore communities.

Professors David Blight, Frank Cogliano, Joanne Freeman and Beverly Gage will take the stage at the new Wachenheim Center to examine the history of the nation-state and the contested nature of American national identity. The panel will discuss what the United States and the Constitution have meant to citizens over time and how that vision has changed or stayed constant.  The event is FREE but registration is required. RSVP to Suzanne Clary at jayheritagecenter@gmail.com  READ MORE ABOUT THE EVENT AND SPEAKERS HERE.

SEPTEMBER 19th 5:30 - 9:30PM

Don't Miss It! Celebrate America at 250

Our 2026 Jay Medal honorees have demonstrated through their life’s work that our shared narratives as a country, complicated as they are, can be better illuminated through the highest caliber of ongoing scholarship and advocacy. We can think of no better way to celebrate America at 250 than with a toast to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and award-winning Lincoln historian Harold Holzer.

Joining us for the celebration will be Chief Judge of the State of New York and the New York Court of Appeals, Honorable Rowan D. Wilson and historian and philanthropist Elihu Rose who will present the awards at our Jay Medal Soirée.

Includes cocktails in the gardens by our own reflecting pool, dinner, awards and dancing.

Read more here.  A few seats still available!  TICKETS & TABLES 

Analogue Sites Explores How Art Gathers Us, Rather Than Dividing

The Architecture of US Diplomacy

Guests at a reception for internationally known artist Jorge Otero-Pailos on Thursday, September 10th had the chance to hear firsthand about the genesis of his artwork Analogue Sites currently installed in the Jay Estate Gardens through November 1.

Otero-Pailos explained , “I am interested in how architectural materials pick up meaning along the way. The steel in these sculptures once served as a perimeter fence for the U.S. Embassy in Oslo; transformed into curving forms and placed within the landscape preserved by the Jay Heritage Center (JHC) , it becomes a ‘de-fence’—no longer simply something that divides, but an artwork that gathers us around it. In this new setting, the sculptures also become a lens through which to see the Jay site differently, connecting John Jay’s history in American diplomacy with the architecture of U.S. diplomacy from which the works originated.” READ MORE & SEE PHOTOS HERE 

 

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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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