Sylvester Manor preservation deal reached

Shelter Island and Suffolk County officials are teaming up to make what many consider the most culturally significant land development purchase ever on Shelter Island, agreeing to jointly spend nearly $4.78 million to preserve 57 acres of land at Sylvester Manor.

The manor, which originally covered all 8,000 acres of the town, was settled by the Dutch in 1632 and purchased by Nathan Sylvester and his partners in 1651. It was designated as a Royal Manor by Gov. Richard Nicoll in 1666.

Over the years much of the land was sold off. Sylvester Manor now covers about 240 acres and is run as a not-for-profit farm and education center, headed by Bennett Konesni, a 15th-generation Sylvester. Much of the remaining 183 acres of the manor are currently used as an organic farm.

"It's our original homestead on the Island," said Shelter Island Supervisor James Dougherty. "It was a food basket for a sugar plantation the [Sylvester] family ran in Barbados." Food grown on the farm was sent to Barbados to feed slaves on the plantation, Dougherty said.

He said the town would be paying $1.4 million for the development rights to the property, which is 30 percent of the $82,000-an-acre cost. Suffolk County agreed to pay the rest -- about $3.4 million.

Town Councilman Glenn Waddington said the 70-30 split made it possible for his small town to afford the purchase. Dougherty said the sale, when completed, would likely eat up all the money left in the town's land preservation fund -- revenue that comes from a special 2 percent tax on real estate sales above $250,000.

Cara Loris, a spokeswoman for Sylvester Manor, said the farm is being reorganized to become a cultural center and to preserve the history of Shelter Island.

"It's been in the same family for 15 generations. It's a big part of our legacy," she said. "This place has been revered by islanders for as long as they've been here. We want to bring more people onto the property, to feel the connection the [Sylvester] family has for this place."

The Sylvester Manor property is not the only big land preservation purchase made by the town in the past week. On Friday, officials closed on a 34-acre undeveloped parcel known euphemistically by locals as the Klenawicus International Airport, a grass strip that at one time was used by small planes.

Like the Sylvester Manor property, Suffolk County will pay 70 percent of the $7.7-million acquisition cost and the town will pay the rest.

Dougherty said a private group of fliers hopes to reactivate the now-unused field, and will try to bring back the annual fly-in and barbecue that had been a tradition decades ago. "International airport . . . that was our tongue-in-cheek name for it," he said.