The non-profit, Jay Heritage Center (JHC) is dedicated to transforming the 23 acre Jay Estate into a vibrant educational campus, hosting innovative programs about American History, Social Justice, Architecture, Environmental Stewardship and Landscape Conservation.
We hope to encourage people of all ages to understand, preserve and protect our shared heritage, natural and man-made – and to inspire the future historians, civic advocates and stewards of our fragile cultural and environmental resources.
The Jay Estate in Rye is the childhood home of one of our nation’s greatest Founding Fathers, John Jay.
As stewards first chartered by the NY Board State of Regents in 1990 to preserve, protect and interpret the 23 acre site, JHC has launched efforts to restore the extensive complex of buildings, their gardens and grounds for use with resonant indoor and outdoor classrooms. Our work is guided and supported by a public-private partnership with New York State and Westchester County Parks forged in 2013.
As the home of native New Yorker and Founding Father John Jay and his descendants for many generations, the Jay Estate is a place of irreplaceable cultural importance and history, a place that provides visitors with an opportunity to study the evolution of our nation, its democracy and its complicated system of social justice.
Come see why this American place was designated a National Historic Landmark, one of fewer than 2500 such sites in the nation. Come immerse yourself and your family in history and nature and see what author Tony Hiss described as a “time funnel” view back in time from our front door down to Long Island Sound.