TESTIMONIALS ON SAVING A TREASURE
"Few localities could claim as heartfelt a
celebration as that held in Rye, N.Y. where Preservation Week was used
to rejoice in the news that the Jay property, the focus of a long and
bitter preservation struggle was at long last to be acquired by
Westchester County. John Jay, the first United States Chief Justice,
grew up on the site, which is adjacent to a large marshlands preserve.
Among the speakers invited by the Coalition was Thompson Mayers, an
assistant general counsel for the National Trust. The ultimate
importance of the preservation effort, Mayers observed, was not only the
protection of the building but the fact that a child standing in the
adjacent field will be able to look up at the Jay House and begin to
understand Jay's place in American history." ---Historic Preservation
News July/August 1992
John Jay grew up in the 18th
Century farmhouse, The Locusts, pictured above. Jay deeded the property
to his first born son, Peter Augustus Jay in 1822 and following the
advice of his father, Peter planted many elms for shade and beauty on
the site. Peter also took down the fences and built a sunken stone wall
around the property called a “ha-ha”, a European landscape feature that
he undoubtedly saw when he traveled with his father to London for
negotiation of the Jay Treaty. This sophisticated stone design which
served a duel purpose of containing livestock like sheep on the grounds
while also affording uninterrupted views, can still be seen today all
along the edges of the Jay Property.
In 1838, years after his father’s death in
1829, Peter took down the Locusts, reincorporating some of the timbers
and nails into a new Greek Revival House situated on the same grassy
knoll as the original homestead of his father and grandfather,
overlooking the Sound.
John Jay and his family at the Locusts in
Rye Official 1936 Dedication of the Rye Post
(1936 mural by Guy Pene du Bois at the Rye
Office championed by Congresswoman
Post
Office)
Caroline O’Day
