Cayuga Nature Center

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The Cayuga Nature Center is an educational institution addressing nature and environmental issues. It is located on the west side of Cayuga Lake in Tompkins County, New York.HistoryCNC traces its history back to the Cayuga Preventorium, founded in 1914, which was a non-profit organization that provided a summer camp on the east side of Cayuga Lake for children exposed to tuberculosis. As tuberculosis cases diminished, the Preventorium sponsored the Cardiac Clinic to serve underprivileged children afflicted with heart disease. In 1936, Ernest T. Paine donated 75 acres of land on the west side of Cayuga Lake, at the current Cayuga Nature Center property, "for the health and welfare of the children of Tompkins County". Construction of the 10000sqft Cayuga Preventorium Lodge on the property was completed by the Works Progress Administration in 1939. The Preventorium summer camp ran until 1942, where diminishing cases of tuberculosis, competition from other summer camps, and staff reductions due to the Second World War forced the camp to close its doors.After the war, Cornell University leased the facility as housing for graduate students. In the 1960s, the lodge was reopened as a conference center to be used year-round. Under a new program sponsored by the State Education Department, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) began to offer the site for outdoor education programs. Based on the success of the program, BOCES, Onondaga Nature Centers, Inc., and the Ithaca City School District collaborated to open the Preventorium as a Nature Center in 1975. Dubbed the Cayuga Nature Center four years later, the center was incorporated as a private non-profit organization in 1981.