Sylvester Manor

In 1961 Nathaniel Sylvester, a Brit,

bought acres of land on bucolic Shelter Island and moved his teenage wife

and slaves

to what became Sylvester Manor,

a provisioning plantation for the Barbadian sugar trade.

To this day the property remains in the same family

and is now a nonprofit educational farm with the mission to

preserve, cultivate and share the land, buildings and rich history behind it.

The once formal gardens are untamed

but the land remains magnificent although stained with the story of slavery

that existed in the North.