Sylvester Manor

Sylvester Manor is a historic manor on Shelter Island in Suffolk County, New York, USA.

Sylvester Manor
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The gateway to Sylvester Manor
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Location	Shelter Island, New York, USA
Coordinates	41°04′49.4″N 72°20′28″W
Built	c. 1737[1]
NRHP reference No.	15000178[2]
Added to NRHP	April 28, 2015

History

Circa 1915 postcard of the manor

The land, spanning 8,000 acres on Shelter Island, was acquired by English-born colonist Nathaniel Sylvester in the 17th century.^[3] Sylvester and his brother owned two plantations in Barbados and over 200 enslaved Africans.^[3] When he died in 1680, the estate and 23 enslaved people were inherited by his descendants.^[3]

The manor on the estate was built in 1737 for Nathaniel Sylvester's grandson, Brinley Sylvester.^[4] Enslaved Africans and European indentured servants built it.^[3] The last enslaved person was freed in 1820.^[4] The grounds include a cemetery of unmarked graves for enslaved people.^[4]

Later, the manor was inherited by Mary Gardiner Horsford, the wife of renowned Harvard University professor Eben Norton Horsford after her mother brought it back into the family.^[5] They entertained often, one of their guests being Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.^[5] After her death, he married her sister, Phoebe Dayton Gardiner, with whom he had a fifth daughter, Cornelia Horsford.^[6]

In recent years, it was the home of heiress Alice Fiske.^[4] More recently, it was inherited by an 11th generation descendant, Bennett Konesni.^[4] With his uncle, Eben Fiske Ostby, he co-founded the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm^[7] with the help of the Peconic Land Trust.^[4][8]

Shelter Island Windmill 20220820 170332666

Architectural significance

The manor has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since April 28, 2015.^[9]

See also

• Shelter Island Windmill
• Orient_windmills

• Aquebogue Windmill

References

1. William E. Krattinger (February 2015). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Sylvester Manor" (PDF). New York State Cultural Resource Information System. Retrieved 2015-06-17.
2. "Weekly list of actions taken on properties: 4/27/15 through 5/01/15". National Park Service. May 8, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
3. Jennifer Schuessler (August 12, 2015). "Confronting Slavery at Long Island's Oldest Estates". The New York Times.
4. Anne Raver (April 10, 2013). "Life on the Plantation: Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island Returns to Its Roots". The New York Times.
5. "The House — Sylvester Manor". Retrieved December 25, 2022.
6. "Horsford, Cornelia". The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women. New York: The Halvord Publishing Company. 1924. p. 169.
7. Sylvester Manor https://www.sylvestermanor.org/home
8. "Sylvester Manor Educational Farm".
9. Sylvester Manor: Sylvester Manor Placed on the National Register of Historic Places

Bibliography

• Mac Griswold. The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island (New York City: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013).
• Katherine Howlett Hayes. Slavery before Race Europeans, Africans, and Indians at Long Island's Sylvester Manor Plantation, 1651-1884 (New York City: NYU Press, 2013).

External links

• Official website
• NYU Fales Library and Special Collections Guide to the Sylvester Manor Archive 1649-1996