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Sailors' Snug Harbor

Sailors' Snug Harbor, also known as Sailors Snug Harbor or Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden or referenced informally as Snug Harbor, is a collection of architecturally significant 19th century buildings set in a park located along the Kill Van Kull on the north shore of Staten Island in New York City. It was once a home for aged sailors and is now a 83 acre city park. Some of the buildings and the grounds are used by arts organizations under the umbrella of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. Sailors' Snug Harbor includes 26 architecturally notable Greek Revival, Beaux Arts, Italianate and Victorian style buildings. It is a National Historic Landmark District and constitutes "an incomparable remnant of New York's 19th-century seafaring past."

History

The complex was originally built in 1833 as Sailor's Snug Harbor, a retirement home and hospital for seamen, funded by a bequest of Robert Randall. In 1900, there were approximately 1000 residents, but the population dropped below 200 by the mid-1950s and to 110 by the 1970s. By 1976, the remaining residents had been relocated to a new facility in North Carolina, the city had taken possession of the property, designated several of the buildings as landmarks, and eventually opened the area to public.

Snug Harbor was founded by the 1801 bequest of New York tycoon Captain Robert Richard Randall (for whom the nearby neighborhood of Randall Manor is named). Randall left his country estate, Manhattan property bounded by Fifth Avenue and Broadway and Eighth and 10th Streets to build an institution to care for "aged, decrepit and worn-out" seamen. The opening of the sailor's home was delayed by extended contests of the will by disappointed heirs. When Sailors' Snug Harbor opened in 1833 it was the first and only home for retired merchant seamen in the history of the United States. It began with a single building, now the centerpiece in the row of five Greek Revival temple-like buildings on the New Brighton waterfront.

Approximately one thousand retired sailors lived at Snug Harbor at its peak in the late 19th century, when it was among the wealthiest charities in New York. Its Washington Square area properties yielded a surplus exceeding the retirement home’s costs by $100,000 a year.

Captain Thomas Melville, a retired sea captain and brother of Moby Dick author Herman Melville, was governor of Snug Harbor from 1867 to 1884.

In 1890, Captain Gustavus G. D. Trask, the governor of Snug Harbor, decided to build a huge Renaissance Revival church, the Randall Memorial Chapel, and, next to it, a music hall, both designed by Robert W. Gibson. The chapel was demolished in 1952.

Snug Harbor experienced financial difficulties in the mid-20th century. Once grand structures, such as the ornate, white marble Randall Memorial Church, fell into disrepair and were demolished. With the inauguration of the Social Security system in the 1930s, demand for accommodation for old sailors declined; by the mid-1950s, less than 200 residents remained. In the 1960s, the few retired sailors still living here were relocated to Sea Level, North Carolina.

By the 1960s, the 83 acre (336,000 m²) site was being coveted by land developers, leading to the formation of a local movement whose goal was the preservation of the property. The newly formed New York City Landmarks Commission stepped forward to save the remaining buildings, designating them as New York City’s first landmark structures, and listing them on the National Register of Historic Places. A series of legal battles ensued. Ultimately, the validity of landmark designation was upheld. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965. While some view the land aquisition as preservation others saw a land grab. The captain's will was broken and the retired sailors were driven from their home on the banks of the Kill where they could enjoy the passing of the merchant shipping to and from the Port of Newark. They were relagated to the backwaters of the swamps of the Carolina marshland.

On September 12, 1976, the Snug Harbor Cultural Center was officially opened to the public. In 2008 the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and the Staten Island Botanical Garden merged to become the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden.

Railroad station

A station on the now-defunct North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway bore the name Sailors Snug Harbor, but was actually located almost ½ mile to the east of the property's main entrance; the stop immediately to the west of this — known as Livingston — was the closest station to the center's front gate.

Architecture

The five interlocking Greek Revival buildings at Snug Harbor are regarded as "the most ambitious moment of the classic revival in the United States" and the "most extraordinary" suite of Greek temple-style buildings in the country. With the 1833 Building C as the centerpiece, five stately Greek Revival buildings "form a symmetrical composition on Richmond Terrace, an eight-columned portico in the center and two six-columned porticoes on either end.

Paul Goldberger wrote, “Snug Harbor has something of the feel of a campus, something of the feel of a small-town square. Indeed, these rows of classical temples, set side-by-side with tiny connecting structures recessed behind the grand facades, are initially perplexing because they fit into no pattern we recognize - they are lined up as if on a street, yet they are set in the landscape of a park. They seem at once to embrace the 19th-century tradition of picturesque design and, by virtue of their rigid linear order, to reject it.”

The 1833 administration building by Minard Lafever is a "magnificent" Greek Revival building with a monumental Ionic portico, and is the architect's oldest surviving work. It was renovated in 1884 with “an eye-popping triple-height gallery with stained glass and ceiling murals,” and restored in the 1990’s.

All five of the famous row of Greek Revival buildings are individually landmarked, as are the 131-year-old chapel, which has been renovated as a recital and concert space; the Italinate Richmond Terrace gate house (1873), the mid-nineteenth century iron fence surrounding the property, and the interiors of Building C and the chapel.

Grounds

The buildings are set in extensive, landscaped grounds, surrounded by an individually landmarked, nineteenth century cast iron fence. They include a "beautiful" 1893 zinc fountain featuring the god Neptune, now indoors with a replica in its place. According to the New York Times, "He sits in the middle, astride a shell held aloft by sea monsters, his trident raised. Jets of water spurt from the fountain's center and from bouquets of metal calla lilies to its sides. Visitors to Snug Harbor stop and watch, sitting on benches surrounding the scene, while workmen eat their lunches. It is quiet. Noisy New York and its busy harbor only away, beyond Richmond Terrace, might just as well be on Mars. Or at least at the other end of His Majesty's sea.

Also on the grounds is a bronze statue of Robert Randall by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

A travel article in the New York Times recently called it Staten Island's "crown jewel."

Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden

Snug Harbor Cultural Center and the Staten Island Botanical Garden is a nonprofit, Smithsonian affiliated organization that operates Sailors' Snug Harbor. The nonprofit organization's primary purpose is "to operate, manage and develop the premises known as Sailors Snug Harbor as a cultural and educational center and park." In 2005, it was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. In 2006, the revenues and expenses of the nonprofit were both around US$3.7 million, and its year-end assets were $2.6 million.

It is home to the Staten Island Children's Theater Association (SICTA) which was formerly accompanied by actors such as Nolan DeBrowner. It is also home to the Staten Island Conservatory of Music. Other components include:

Staten Island Botanical Garden

The Staten Island Botanical Garden maintains extensive gardens including The White Garden, inspired by Vita Sackville-West's famous garden at Sissinghurst; Connie Gretz’s Secret Garden, complete with a castle, a maze and walled secret garden; and The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, an authentic, walled, Chinese garden in the style of the famous gardens of Suzhou.

Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art

Established in 1977, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art exhibits contemporary art. The center is particularly well-known for the exhibitions it hosts every year, along with artist-in-residence exhibitions. Committed to promoting the growth and development of both local and international artists, the center has gallery space.

The Noble Maritime Collection

The Noble Maritime Collection is a museum with a particular emphasis on the work of artist John A. Noble (1913-83). The Washington Post calls the exhibit of the a houseboat that painter, lithographer and sailor John A. Noble converted into an artist's studio, assembling it from salvaged wooden ship materials over 40 years, "compelling... It is a home on the water and an artist's lair all in one, complete with wooden surfaces, portholes, an engineer's bed, a drawing table, and printmaking and etching implements. Inside, it's easy to envision the boat moored in nearby waters while the son of painter John 'Wichita Bill' Noble sketched maritime subjects from the 1930s until his death in 1983. The younger Noble made regular rowboat excursions to observe and document the working life of the waterfront. The Noble collection is a testament to a vibrant culture of ships, docks and laborers that has mostly disappeared from New York.

The New York Sun called the Noble collection, "an unsung gem among New York museums.

The Staten Island Children's Museum

The Staten Island Children's Museum features a rotating collection of hands-on exhibits.

The Staten Island Museum

There are plans by the Staten Island Institute of Arts & Sciences to open an art museum in a modern, fully climate controlled facility housed within the walls of one of the triple land-marked “front five” buildings at Snug Harbor. Founded in 1881 as The Natural Science Association of Staten Island, the institute currently operates a museum in nearby St. George that includes not only natural history, but the art and history of Staten Island.

Art Lab

Art Lab is a school of fine and applied art, founded in 1975 and offering art instruction and exhibitions.

Music Hall

The Music Hall is a “splendid,” 850-seat auditorium. The Music Hall opened in July 1892 with a cantata, "The Rose Maiden." Six hundred residents of the home sat on plain wooden seats, while the 300 upholstered balcony seats were filled by trustees and their guests.

In literature and film

The last scene of the movie Fur (film), which was supposed to recreate a nudist camp, was filmed there in July, 2006.

Sources

Barnett Shepherd, Sailors' Snug Harbor: 1801-1976, Snug Harbor, 1979.
Gerald J. Barry, The Sailors' Snug Harbor, A History, 1801-2001, Fordham Press, 2000.
Frances Morrone, A Home for Ancient Mariners, June 28, 2007