The Shelter Island Historical Society interprets Shelter Island’s past through historical material and through its people. The newly renovated and expanded History Center is open Wednesday to Saturday. Plan your visit today!
Our mission is to preserve, cultivate and share the unique legacy of historic Sylvester Manor. Once a Native American hunting and fishing ground, from 1652 the manor was home to 11 generations of its original European settler family. Formerly encompassing all of Shelter Island, over time it transformed from a provisioning plantation worked by enslaved people to a pioneering food industrialist's estate. Today, restoration is underway and you can visit the 240-acre waterfront site with its 1735 Manor House, historic burial ground of enslaved workers, monument to Quakers who sheltered here, archaeological digs, wind-powered gristmill, gardens where North America's oldest boxwoods grow, and livestock and produce farm.