Mission
To improve the lives of children, youth, families, and communities by helping them to identify, understand, and utilize their own strengths, talents, and resources.
Vision
Children’s Beach House envisions a world where all children reach their highest potential.
History
1936
Lydia Chichester duPont rents a cottage to bring children with orthopedic challenges to Lewes Beach to experience the same healing qualities she found there as a child.
1938
Miss Lydia purchases property on Lewes Bay and builds the first Children’s Beach House from an award-winning design by Samuel Eldon Homsey and Victorine du Pont Homsey.
1947
Children’s Beach House opens its doors to ALL needy children in Delaware, making it one of the first organizations in the state — if not the first — to be racially integrated.
1955
With the growth of other programs to meet the needs of children with physical challenges, CBH changes the focus of its work to children with speech and hearing challenges.
1975
CBH co-creates the Sussex Consortium and hosts the fledgling program at its facility on Bay Avenue.
2000
New Building constructed – opened Fall 2000.
2015
CBH opens the Margaret H. Rollins Child Development Center for three- and four-year-olds. The Ma-Ran Endowment is established to support the work of the Rollins Center.
2025
CBH launches afterschool and summer day camp programs at Milton Elementary School and H.O. Brittingham Elementary School.
