28 ACRES · LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK
Sunning Hill Retreat
A Century of History. A New Purpose. A Living Story.
1928 Historic Georgian Manor
30 MIN From Midtown Manhattan
16 Guests Maximum
Sunning Hill Retreat is a nonprofit sanctuary for reflection, renewal, and connection, set within a historic 28-acre estate on Long Island.
From a Private Estate to a Place of Shared Renewal
Designed in the 1920s by noted New York architect Thomas Harlan Ellett, the Georgian manor at Sunning Hill carries the craftsmanship and architectural legacy of its era. Ellett’s later work included the Cosmopolitan Club in Manhattan, the Bronx General Post Office, and several federal post office and courthouse buildings.
For nearly a century, this house has witnessed changing lives and changing ideas of what such a place could be. Today, we receive it not as a finished monument, but as a living responsibility.
We cannot change what it has witnessed. We can decide what it will serve next.
An architect once gave this place its form. Today, Sunning Hill is giving it renewed life and purpose.
Every person who comes here becomes part of its continuing history. Through what they experience, create, and choose to share, individual stories begin to weave a new chapter—one shaped by reflection, connection, and shared human experience.
Sunning Hill was created with one simple belief: everyone deserves a place to pause, breathe, and feel at home within themselves. We know how loud life can get—the endless to-do lists, the constant noise, the way it all seems to push you further from what matters most. This is your space to step away from all that. To slow down. To listen inward. To feel quietly supported.
Restoration From the Outside In
We are restoring the manor, the land, and its gathering spaces so that they may serve a new generation. But the physical restoration is only the visible part of our work.
Our deeper mission is to create the conditions in which something within us may also be restored: the capacity to slow down, notice, listen, and connect.
We do not believe that people arrive broken. Rather, the pressures and speed of modern life can distance us from qualities already within us—awareness, steadiness, compassion, wonder, and care.
We restore the place so that it may help restore our capacity for awareness, steadiness, and connection.
Why We Exist
Modern life can narrow our attention to what is urgent, measurable, and immediately in front of us.
Everyday concerns can begin to feel like the whole of life. Sunning Hill exists to restore a wider field of awareness.
We invite people to see themselves within a longer history, to see life within the vastness of the universe, and then to return to the present with greater humility, compassion, and care. The purpose is not to escape ordinary life. It is to return to it with a quieter mind, a more open heart, and a renewed understanding of what truly deserves our attention.
Our Mission
Our Mission
A Story We Write Together
Sunning Hill’s next chapter is being written through the lives that enter it. The people who come here are not simply visitors. Each reflection, conversation, creation, and story shared becomes another thread in its living history.
We invite you to enter the story—and to help shape what Sunning Hill will serve for generations to come.
We create meaningful, accessible spaces and experiences where people feel welcomed, respected, and able to engage with openness and trust.
Through art, nature, mindfulness, and contemplative practice, we nurture awareness, inner steadiness, intentional living, and deeper connection with ourselves, one another, nature, life, and the universe.
Our work is grounded in presence, humility, compassion, connection, and stewardship.
A Story We Write Together
Sunning Hill’s next chapter is being written through the lives that enter it.
The people who come here are not simply visitors. Each reflection, conversation, creation, and story shared becomes another thread in its living history.
We invite you to enter the story—and to help shape what Sunning Hill will serve for generations to come.