Friends of John Jay Homestead Celebrate Summer Kitchen Opening with Gala Luncheon

This year, the event will celebrate the opening of the newly refurbished historic Summer Kitchen in “Bedford House.” The event includes a chance to explore the space, and a luncheon and lecture in the Ballroom. Attendees will also be able to visit the Homestead’s Back Parlor exhibit, Slaves, Slavery and the Jay Family. That exhibit shares for the first time stories and information about some of the individual slaves who lived with the Jays.

The Summer Kitchen focuses on the “back story” of John Jay’s home: how the hard work inside the house – laundry, cooking, candle- and soap-making – was done, and by whom. The women whose lives can now be more fully explored include both the ladies of the family and the servants and slaves who lived and worked alongside them. Interpretation also addresses the anti-slavery views and actions of the Jay family. Founding Father John Jay, who lived in the house from 1801-1829, owned slaves, but believing slavery to be morally wrong, he manumitted many of them and as Governor of New York State signed into law the Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. William Jay, who took ownership of the Homestead following his father’s death, was a leading abolitionist.

ALLAN WEINREB is Interpretive Programs Assistant at John Jay Homestead. A twenty-four-year veteran of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, he has acted as the Homestead’s curator since 2001. He is the site’s principal authority on the Jays, and the principal designer of the changing Back Parlor exhibits.