Trunk Bay was the Oppenheimers’ first refuge on St. John after the 1954 security hearing: a primitive guesthouse on the island’s north shore that offered isolation when they were seeking to be left alone. For several early visits, the bay served as both a hiding place from public attention and the starting point for a new, sea-centered routine.

Setting and Refuge

After arriving on St. John, the Oppenheimers bypassed Caneel Plantation, the island’s upscale resort, and traveled over dirt roads to the guesthouse at Trunk Bay, run by longtime resident Irva Boulon Thorpe. The modest lodge had neither phones nor electricity and could accommodate no more than a dozen guests. Its remoteness was central to its appeal: according to the proprietor’s daughter, Irva Claire Denham, the family was in shock and careful about whom they spoke to, while Kitty Oppenheimer guarded Robert closely because he was willing to talk to people who approached him.

The refuge did not make domestic life placid. When Kitty, in a foul mood, threw things, Robert went to the Boulons the following morning and paid them handsomely for the damage. The episode gives the guesthouse a double character in the narrative: it was a shelter from scrutiny, but not an escape from the strains the family brought with them.

A Base for Island Life

Using Cruz Bay as their home port, the Oppenheimers spent five weeks sailing the Comanche around St. John and the neighboring British Virgin Islands. Trunk Bay thus belonged to a period of movement as well as withdrawal: the family found a secluded place to stay, then made the surrounding waters part of their temporary life away from the mainland.

Beginning in 1954, they returned to St. John for several months each year. During their first visits they stayed again at the Trunk Bay guesthouse. In 1957, Robert bought land on Hawksnest Bay, and the couple later established a cottage there. Trunk Bay was therefore not their eventual island home; it was the initial lodging from which a recurring seasonal retreat developed.

Narrative Significance

The bay’s importance lies in the contrast between its plain facilities and the privacy they afforded. After a public security ordeal, a place without electricity or telephones could offer what more comfortable accommodation could not: distance from people seeking access to Robert. The island as a whole also frustrated surveillance; the FBI found it impossible to keep him under observation while he was there. Trunk Bay anchors the beginning of that island refuge, before the Oppenheimers’ repeated stays and later cottage at Hawksnest Bay made St. John a more enduring part of their lives.