START YOUR FAMILY'S EXPLORATION OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION HERE IN RYE

The Jay Family Home, "The Locusts" in Rye, NY (JHC Collection- Gift of John Clarkson and Emily Jay)

As our country commemorates America 250, we encourage you to start your journey right here in Rye. Experience American history at the ancestral home of spymaster, diplomat, peacemaker, and nation builder John Jay and 5 generations of his family. Follow the trails that he walked during the Stamp Act as he contemplated his role in the revolution. Discover why Jay is considered the first chief of U. S. counterespionage and how he led a spy ring in Westchester while trying your own hand at creating secret messages. Stand on the same spot where he and his family celebrated the Treaty of Paris.

Learn about Jay's efforts to abolish slavery in 1777 and the long arc of events that led to abolition. Examine our whole history through the authentic stories of the enslaved women and men who lived, worked and left their imprints at the 18th century farm.

Above all, we invite you to learn about the legacy of national service that generations of the Jay family continue to uphold.

Our grounds are open dawn to dusk and a few highlighted programs including the reopening of our gardens can be found below.

Colonial era churchwarden pipe stamped with maker's mark. Found during archaeological tests at the Jay Estate, this kaolin pipe is similar to other pipes introduced by European settlers to Indigenous populations in North America, particularly during the 17th and 18th centuries.

GARDENS REOPENING

THURSDAY, APRIL 16

Thursdays 10am - 2pm

Sundays 10am - 5pm

Through November 1st

Weather depending; closed on holidays

Admission is FREE and there are numerous pop-up horticulture and nature programs planned for adults and families within these award-winning botanical spaces! Our spaces are ideal for a FREE school group visit guided by our Horticulture & Education Director Lucia Maestro.

Contact us at jayheritagecenter@gmail.com to reserve a date.

To volunteer and be added to our garden volunteer newsletter, email hortdirector.jhc@gmail.com

Top photo, school group visit. Bottom photo, over 40 volunteers from Westchester and the Mamaroneck National Honor Society joined us this month to help preserve our park!

MAY 3rd

10:30am -12:30pm



It's Spring Migration!

FREE Family Birdwatching Workshop

Join Indigo Goodson-Fields on a bird outing through the Jay Estate's newly designated New York State Birding Trail! Binoculars are not needed but if you have a pair, bring them (there will be a limited amount of shared binoculars available). All ages and experience levels are welcome. The route may include dirt and grass paths, steps, and exposed routes. We will stop often and move at a steady pace.

Indigo Goodson-Fields is a writer, poet, and birder based in Brooklyn. Her forthcoming book, entitled Essential Birding is an anthology about the importance of birding in the lives of Black birders across the U.S. and will be published by OR Books in fall 2026.

Limited to 40 participants - please email jayheritagecenter@gmail.com to reserve your spot!

STARTING MAY 16

FEUDING FOUNDERS:

The Untold Drama of Silas Deane,

John Jay, and the Lees of Virginia

We’re excited to collaborate

with 3 new National Historic Landmark site partners at the Webb-Dean Stevens Museum (CT), Menokin and Stratford Hall (VA) along with our colleagues at the John Jay Homestead in Bedford. Save the dates to explore the untold Revolutionary war drama of John Jay, 

Silas Deane and the Lees of Virginia.

We tend to remember the founders as marble men — monumental, unified, certain. The truth is messier and more interesting. The Feuding Founders Collective is a multi-site public history initiative that humanizes these patriots who were in conversation, in collaboration, and sometimes in conflict with one another.

Organized as a three-part series with events in three states, this discussion destabilizes the one-dimensional portraits we’ve inherited and invites audiences to sit with the full complexity of these lives: the ambition and the insecurity, the idealism and the grudges, the smear campaigns and the shared cause. The first event kicks off on May 16th in Wethersfield, Connecticut!

Then save the date for

John Jay: Diplomat and Spymaster

September 26th at the Jay Estate

CLASSIC DESIGN LUNCHEON RETURNS!

JUNE 17th at 11:30am

On June 17^th we bring back our very popular Classic Design Luncheon featuring Genevieve Wheeler-Brown, the author of “Beyond Blue and White.”

Her book explores the history of Delftware ceramics, focusing on the often-overlooked roles of women as makers, patrons, and collectors, from 17th-century factory owners like Barbara Rotteveel to Gilded Age collectors like Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan. A must for devotees of decorative arts and the history of material culture.

Registration link coming soon.

Join us for a tour of the gardens and lunch outdoors with a lively conversation! Put together a table and bring friends.! Pictured above, lunch with renowned designer Thomas Jayne and the late design writer Pilar Viladas at the Jay Estate

SAVE THE DATE

ART & CONVERSATION

ANALOGUE SITES WITH

JORGE OTERO-PAILOS

JUNE 24th at 5pm

Analogue Sites is a series of steel sculptures by Spanish-American artist and preservationist Jorge Otero-Pailos, created in 2019 from fencing salvaged during the preservation of the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, designed by Finnish-American modernist master Eero Saarinen.

At the Jay Heritage Center, two works are placed symmetrically in the restored garden parterres, framing the central path. Their mirrored placement reflects themes of balance and reciprocity central to diplomacy and honors John Jay’s historic missions to Spain, France, and England, and his role as a founding figure in American diplomacy. The sculptures are on display now through November.

On JUne 24th, join us for a special discussion with the artist that places this work in context at this historic moment in time. Registration link coming soon.

Our Mission

Our non-profit, 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.

We hope to encourage people of all ages to understand, preserve and protect our shared heritage and to inspire future historians, civic advocates and stewards to safeguard our fragile cultural resources.

We are chartered by the NYS Board of Education to preserve and protect the natural environment and environmental resources of the Jay Estate and the ecosystem of which it is a part.

Suzanne Clary, Executive Director, jayheritagecenter@gmail.com

Lucia Maestro, Director of Horticultural Education

hortdirector.jhc@gmail.com

www.jayheritagecenter.org



Charity EIN 13-3585332

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