Maude Adams was an actress, inventor and philanthropist. She began her career at 9 months of age. Toward the turn of the 19th Century, she went on to become one of the most famous and highly paid actresses of the time. Although she was revered for many of her roles, she is best known as having been the first actress to portray Peter Pan in the United States.

In 1897, Maude bought a farm in Lake Ronkonkoma she used as a retreat but ran as a farm. She named it “Sandy Garth”.

The Cenacle

Maude Adams “sold” Sandy Garth Farm to the Sisters of the Cenacle in 1921 for the price of $1.00. Since the mid 1920s, it had served as a Retreat Center by the Sisters whose mission is to “awaken and deepen faith with and for the people of our times”. In 2009, the old Retreat House was dismantled and a new Retreat Center was built. It incorporated components of the old building: stained glass windows were removed and then re-installed; paneled oak doors were repaired, refinished and rehung; roof tiles, statuary and corbels were reused; fixtures were refurbished and reused and old brick was crushed and used to underpin new pavement.

In 2011, the copper and stone cupola that graced the original retreat house was placed on the new Cenacle Retreat House and the new “green” building was unveiled.

In 2020, the property was sold once again, this time to the Diocese of Rockville Center to begin anew as The St. Pius Home for Retired Clergy.

Enjoy the photos and please visit the Museum for more about Maude Adams and The Cenacle.

If you are on Facebook, for more information about Maude Adams, hit the link below for “My Maude Adams”.