Sylvester_Manor
Sylvester Manor
United States historic place
Sylvester Manor is a historic manor on Shelter Island in Suffolk County, New York, USA.
Sylvester Manor | |
The gateway to Sylvester Manor | |
| 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 |
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]
The manor has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since April 28, 2015.[9]
- 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.
- "Weekly list of actions taken on properties: 4/27/15 through 5/01/15". National Park Service. May 8, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
- Jennifer Schuessler (August 12, 2015). "Confronting Slavery at Long Island's Oldest Estates". The New York Times.
- Anne Raver (April 10, 2013). "Life on the Plantation: Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island Returns to Its Roots". The New York Times.
- "The House — Sylvester Manor". Retrieved December 25, 2022.
- "Horsford, Cornelia". The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women. New York: The Halvord Publishing Company. 1924. p. 169.
- Sylvester Manor https://www.sylvestermanor.org/home
- 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).
![](./File:("Sylvestor_Manor,"_Cornelia_Horsford_house,_Shelter_Island,_New_York._(LOC)_(7221400088).jpg){kind=link}
