In spite of the fact that the Seaside was the first state institution of its kind in America, and that many of the leaders of the medical profession were yet skeptical of the power of continuous sun-baths to cure bone tuberculosis, the success of the institution was immediate, and in a few months a waiting list of patients began to form.Ī waiting list is a very serious problem for a state institution that offers the public relief from pain and hope of cure which are not available elsewhere. The commission members quickly recognized that the facility needed to expand as indicated in their report for 1920 to 1922. State officials initially purchased the bankrupt White Beach Hotel in the Crescent Beach area and opened it with a maximum of 45 beds to treat children with tuberculosis. In the 1920s, the State of Connecticut entered into a legal dispute with the McCook family when the state attempted to condemn a portion of the land to expand its Seaside Sanatorium tuberculosis facility, which had opened in 1919. The family built a house on the point itself, which they occupied only during the summer months. The family purchased 16 acres of Niantic shoreline in the Crescent Beach area including Champlain's Point. He and his family began spending the summer in Niantic for the benefit of their eldest son's health. John's Episcopal Church of East Hartford in 1869. One of those tourists was the Reverend Professor John James McCook, the rector of St. With the construction of the Shore Line Railway that connected New Haven to New London in 1852, the village of Niantic began to grow as it opened up the shoreline to summer tourists. The victorious colonists issued land grants to Captain Thomas Bull and four of his soldiers around McCook Point. The Nehantics continued to occupy the area along the Niantic River, McCook Point, and Black Point, and supported the colonists in the Pequot War of 1634 to 1638. At this time McCook Point was known as Champlain's Point. When European settlers arrived, McCook Point along with much of the area surrounding it was left to the Nehantics, as settlers chose to live closer to the King's Highway, now known as the Boston Post Road, in what is now the village of Flanders. They grew corn, beans, and squash, as well as catching fish and shellfish in the sound, the river, and other streams that feed the sound. The Nehantics camped along the Niantic River and the Niantic Sound, including McCook Point, during the summer months. McCook Point served as a summer camping site for Nehantic Indians. McCook Point has been used for fishing and recreation for centuries. The point represents an example of the geological forces that created the northern shore of the Long Island Sound: a combination of three mountain building events creating bedrock units with a north-south grain, and subsequent glacial action that eroded the softer rock structure to create the existing coastline including McCook Point and adjoining Black Point. McCook Point Park consists of the point itself which stands about 40 feet above sea level, and a beach area that is the easternmost point of the Crescent Beach area. Parking by the beach and on the bluff by the pavilion.Two restroom facilities: one at the lower beach area, the other on the bluff near the picnic pavilion.
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