Over the next few years, our goal is to preserve the oldest sections of the 1737 Manor House and adaptively reuse the newer 1908 section of the House, creating a Center for History and Heritage. This campaign has two primary goals:
Preserve the exterior and oldest sections of the 1737 Manor House, ensuring it remains a living structure that reflects the complexity and layers of American history.
Rehabilitate the newer portions of the Manor House, establishing the Sylvester Manor Center for History & Heritage.
We expect the rehabilitation of the 1737 Manor House to cost approximately $13,000,000 of which we have raised nearly $8,000,000.
Fundraising is ongoing for the remaining $5,000,000 but we need your help. Please consider making a gift today.
In 2023, Sylvester Manor started its first-ever capital campaign to rehabilitate the 1737 Manor House. Significant progress during the “quiet phase” raised over $8M thanks to generous supporters, including individual donors and major grants from both public agencies and private foundations. We invite everyone to join us in this vital effort to rehabilitate and restore the Manor House.
$8M in funding raised to date:
CENTER FOR HISTORY & HERITAGE
The 1737 Manor House is the single most important artifact in our collection and one of the crown jewels of this historic site. The exterior and oldest parts of the House will be preserved with the help of historic preservation professionals. The newer section, which dates to 1908, will be adaptively reused for programming and interpretive purposes. Over the next few years, we will establish the Sylvester Manor Center for History & Heritage to include accessible artist/scholar-residency workspaces and housing, offices for expanded History & Heritage staff, year-round exhibition and program spaces, as well as support facilities.
ARCHITECTURAL PRESERVATION STUDIO, DPC
PLANS FOR HISTORY & HERITAGE CENTER
ENSURE LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY
Investments in Sylvester Manor’s infrastructure will ensure we continue to expand existing programs and meet the needs of our community. Included in this plan is the adaptive reuse of a newly acquired historic building, the Farmhouse, for operational and administrative purposes. This increased office space outside of the Manor House will enable the organization to continue to grow and adapt for years to come.
Consisting of 236 acres of working farm fields, woodlands and wetlands, a 1737 Manor House, a restored 19th-century windmill, an Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground and family cemetery as well as a formal garden, Sylvester Manor is uniquely positioned to be a nationally recognized center for place-based learning and interpretation.
Sylvester Manor has become a unique educational, arts and cultural resource for people of all ages, from the youngest children to adults, and all interest levels, from history buffs to eminent scholars. Using shared resources, collections and the layered cultural landscape itself, we are committed to bringing expanded programming and the full history of Sylvester Manor to a broader audience.
The lands known today as Sylvester Manor were home to the indigenous Manhansett People for thousands of years, on the island they called Manhansack-aha-quash-awamock, the “Island Sheltered by Islands.” In the early 1650s Dutch-English colonists, Nathaniel Sylvester and three partners, established Shelter Island as a provisioning plantation for sugarcane operations in Barbados. Consisting today of 236 acres, Sylvester Manor is the most intact plantation remnant and former place of enslavement north of Virginia.
Sylvester Manor was owned continuously by one family, Sylvesters and their descendants, from 1652 until 2010 when Eben Fiske Ostby, and his nephew Bennett Konesni, gifted the historic site to the nonprofit organization they established. Over the past 370 years, Sylvester Manor has been a provisioning plantation, an 18th-century Enlightenment-era farm, a pioneering food industrialist’s summer estate, and today includes the 1737 built Manor House, a 19th-century restored windmill, an Afro-Indigenous Burial Ground and family cemetery, a working farm, and educational and cultural arts programs open to all.
Sylvester Manor was designated a Historic District of national significance on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. Our mission is to Preserve, Cultivate and Share historic Sylvester Manor.
We still have $5M left to raise and need your help!
Giving to the Sylvester Manor Capital Campaign is an opportunity for you to be a meaningful part of our future. Ask about our Naming Opportunities, or direct your giving questions to Alyse Clark, Development Manager at amclark@sylvestermanor.org.
Sylvester Manor’s financial needs are closely aligned with its strategic priorities: inclusive historical interpretation, sustainable farming and food access, place-based learning opportunities for people of all ages and abilities, arts and cultural programming, and increased public access and use. While the primary focus of the campaign is on the historic rehabilitation of the Manor House, we need improved entranceways, roadways and parking areas to adequately preserve and use the House; new administration/office space; and improved programming and interpretation both within the House and surrounding landscape.
The impetus for starting the campaign now stems from four major events.
The completion of our Comprehensive Landscape Plan by Nelson Byrd Woltz in late 2020.
The completion of the Sylvester Manor House Preservation and Maintenance Plan by Architectural Preservation Studio in early 2022.
The transfer of the full interior Manor Collection from the family to our non-profit in the Winter of 2023.
THREE major grant awards supporting rehabilitation of the 1737 Manor House, December 2022-April 2023: $3.75M from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $500K from New York State Environmental Protection Fund/Office of Parks and Historic Preservation and $150K from the Gerry Charitable Trust.
Three to five years.
Fall 2025
The Sylvester Manor Board of Trustees has approved a Capital Campaign Committee that will act in a planning capacity to move the campaign and strategy forward. The Executive Director will remain responsible for *most* day to day decisions. For larger decisions, the Executive Director and Development Manager will make recommendations to the Sylvester Manor Board. For the duration of the campaign, the overall fiduciary and operational responsibilities sit with the members of Sylvester Manor Board. The Board will ensure that funds raised are managed effectively honoring donor-directed restrictions. At least seven members of the Board sit on the Capital Campaign Committee for coordination and overlap.
We encourage donors to spread their campaign gift over a three- to five-year period. Capital campaigns have a special targeted purpose for raising money and the funds are restricted. By spreading your pledge out over time, you have the flexibility to plan for your financial commitment. The first pledge payment is encouraged to occur in the 2025 tax year but can be made in 2026 as well.
Absolutely! Matching gifts are the perfect way to increase your gift! Many professionals are employed by companies who may offer this charitable benefit option. It is worth exploring if your spouse or partner has a corporate matching program. Contact Alyse Clark @ amclark@sylvestermanor.org to provide matching gift information.
No. Annual giving is crucial support for ongoing operations at Sylvester Manor and will be measured separately from capital campaign gifts. We still count on your ongoing operational support!
Check/Credit Card
Wire Transfer
Appreciated Stock
IRA Qualified Distributions
Bequest
*Please make checks payable to Sylvester Manor
Yes. Absolutely! We will work together on a pledge payment schedule.
At the time you make a gift or a pledge, we will ask you to complete a donor recognition designation form outlining your preferences for how we recognize your contribution. Donors receive a tax acknowledgement letter following receipt of their gift.
Sylvester Manor’s fiscal year runs from November 1-October 31. Annual gifts to the Capital Campaign are credited to the fiscal year in which payment is received. For multi-year pledges, recognition in the Annual Report will be for the entire amount in the fiscal year in which the gift intention is documented; credit in subsequent years is based upon the amount of the pledge payment received in each fiscal year.
A bequest to the Sylvester Manor Capital Campaign would ONLY be used toward the endowment, unless proceeds are received from 2023-2027. Donors who document their intention to include Sylvester Manor as a non-contingent beneficiary of their estate plan will receive credit in the fiscal year in which the intention is documented at a discounted value based on the age of the youngest individual upon whose death Sylvester Manor receives the bequest. This age, usually a minimum of 65 years, is determined as of October 31, 2026.
To document a bequest intention for gift credit, a donor must complete a Bequest Intention Form and provide a copy of the relevant portion of their will or trust. On the Bequest Intention Form, the donor is asked to provide or estimate the current value of the bequest.
Gifts may also not be accepted if the gift imposes a disproportionate burden on the organization with respect to financial, administrative, and other costs; or that are likely to have a negative impact on the Sylvester Manor community that would frustrate the purpose of the gift.
