Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers
The Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers consists of acres overlooking the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
The site, parts of which were once known as the Wye River Plantation, was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. in 1979. William Paca, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and third governor of Maryland, maintained his family estate here and a monument to his memory stands near the Houghton House.
Owned by The Aspen Institute, it offers three distinct, full-service executive retreats: River House, Houghton House, and Wye Woods.
In 1998 the Conference Center was the site for negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Authority which resulted in the Wye River Memorandum.
Since 1998, the Wye River Group on Healthcare has conducted policy meetings on retreat there.
Elián González and his father stayed there briefly in 2000.
Beginning in September 2008, and meeting quarterly through December 2009, The Aspen Philanthropy Seminar–Washington, DC, convened a small group of philanthropists at the Center.
The River House facility was originally developed in 1987 as a specialized high-tech conference facility to house the Institute for Information Studies, a joint program of Northern Telecom Ltd. and the Aspen Institute. The Institute convened executives in business, academia, government and the non-profit sector to explore the impacts of technology on society.
