Trinity Seaside Home

The oldest film in the Trinity Archives, this video depicts the Trinity Seaside Home circa 1925. It may have been used to encourage donations to the home. The Trinity Seaside Home, located in Great River, Long Island, opened on July 1, 1882. It was billed "as a place where some of the poor children of New York might be given on opportunity to escape from the city streets and enjoy the pleasure of at least a short stay in the country.”  The Seaside Home belonged to Mrs. William Kissam Vanderbilt and its use was a gift to Trinity, until Mrs. Vanderbilt donated the home to Trinity in 1895. The Seaside Home was run by the Sisters of St. Mary and later the Sisters of St. Margaret. The Seaside Home was used a summer getaway home for the children of St. Mary’s Hospital, Trinity Mission House, and Trinity’s Chapels. Preference was given to ill or convalescent children.  By 1952, when the West Cornwall Camp opened, the Seaside Home became a girls-only camp.  In 1961 it was decided to transfer the work of the Seaside Camp to a newly-purchased property in Sharon, CT, which would become the Trinity Mountain Camp for girls. The Home was sold in 1961.