In 1886 the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, located on
Madison Avenue and 35th Street, NYC, rented a
farmhouse at Mohegan Lake from R. Horne as part of a
“fresh air” program sponsored by the New York Tribune.
Children from the tenements of New York’s lower East
Side, many of whom immigrated from Europe with
their families during the 1880s, were
brought from often squalid living conditions to spend a
week in the fresh country air of upstate New York. The
Rev. Arthur Brooks of the Church of the Incarnation persuaded his
parishioners to rent the furnished farmhouse, and on
June 19, 1886, 25 young boys and girls from the east side
of Manhattan became the first campers. Each summer, some
230 children benefited from the experience.
Over time
the Incarnation Center grew and became what it is now, a
place for people of all ages and backgrounds to
experience "Growth, Discovery and Renewal"
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