Sailors Snug Harbor
Encyclopedia
Kill Van Kull
The Kill Van Kull is a tidal strait between Staten Island, New York and Bayonne, New Jersey in the United States. Approximately long and wide, it connects Newark Bay with Upper New York Bay. The Robbins Reef Light marks the eastern end of the Kill, Bergen Point its western end...
on the north shore of Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It was once a home for aged sailors
Sailors
Sailors is the plural form of Sailor, or mariner.Sailors may also refer to:*Sailors , a 1964 Swedish film*Ken Sailors , American basketball playerSports teams*Erie Sailors, baseball teams in Pennsylvania, USA...
and is now an 83 acres (335,889.4 m²) 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 Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
, Beaux Arts, Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
and Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
style buildings. The site is considered Staten Island's "crown jewel" and "an incomparable remnant of New York's 19th-century seafaring past." It is a National Historic Landmark District.
History
Snug Harbor was founded by the 1801 bequest of New York tycoon Captain Robert Richard RandallRobert Richard Randall
Captain Robert Richard Randall was a noted sea captain in life and since his death in New York City on the 5th of June, 1801 has been a philanthropist who has helped thousands of seafarers through the charity he directed be formed from his estate in New York City; later to be officially called The...
for whom the nearby neighborhood of Randall Manor
Randall Manor, Staten Island
Randall Manor is a neighborhood located on the North Shore of Staten Island, one of the five boroughs of New York City, USA.The neighborhood is bound by Bard Avenue in the West, Henderson Avenue to the North and Forest Avenue to the South....
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 Randall's disappointed heirs. When Sailors' Snug Harbor opened in 1833, it was the first 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
New Brighton, Staten Island
New Brighton, formerly an independent village, is today a neighborhood located on the North Shore of Staten Island in New York City, USA. The neighborhood comprises an older industrial and residential harbor front area along the Kill Van Kull west of St. George.The village of New Brighton was...
waterfront.
Captain Thomas Melville
Thomas Melville
Thomas Melville was a sailor and later governor of Sailors' Snug Harbor, and the younger brother of author Herman Melville....
, a retired sea captain and brother of Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...
author Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
, was governor of Snug Harbor from 1867 to 1884.
In 1890, Captain Gustavus Trask
Gustavus Trask
Gustavus D. S. Trask was the governor of Sailors' Snug Harbor. He had three sons: George S. D. Trask; John E. D. Trask; and Benjamin D. Trask. He died on March 15, 1914 in Orange, New Jersey.-References:...
, the governor of Snug Harbor, built a Renaissance Revival church, the Randall Memorial Chapel and, next to it, a music hall, both designed by Robert W. Gibson
Robert W. Gibson
Robert W. Gibson, AIA, was an English-born American ecclesiastical architect active in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century New York City and New York State. He designed several large Manhattan churches and a number of prominent residences and institutional buildings.Gibson studied...
.
Approximately 1,000 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.
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 in 1952. With the inauguration of the Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
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
Sea Level, North Carolina
Sea Level is an unincorporated community in northeastern Carteret County, North Carolina. It rests on the banks of the Core Sound and has a population of roughly 450. It is located in what was known to early settlers as Hunting Quarters. Sea Level has one of the lowest elevations in 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 for 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
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. A series of legal battles ensued but the validity of landmark designation was ultimately upheld and it was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1965.
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.
The Trustees of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor in the City of New York continues its work today. It remains committed to the mission of the original 1801 will of Captain Robert Richard Randall
Robert Richard Randall
Captain Robert Richard Randall was a noted sea captain in life and since his death in New York City on the 5th of June, 1801 has been a philanthropist who has helped thousands of seafarers through the charity he directed be formed from his estate in New York City; later to be officially called The...
to care for needy mariners and continues to operate with funds from the endowment. There are mariners all over the country who meet eligibility requirements and are in need of financial help who are assisted by the Trust. There is no longer a retirement home under the operation of the Trust; while administrative functions are conducted from the office located at 40 Exchange Place, Suite 1701 NY, NY 10005.
The Sailors' Snug Harbor Archives are preserved at the Stephen B. Luce Library, SUNY Maritime College.
Railroad station
A stationSailors' Snug Harbor (Staten Island Railway station)
Sailors' Snug Harbor is a station on the abandoned North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway. It has two tracks and two side platforms. It was closed on March 31, 1953 along with all other stations on the North Shore Branch. It is located in the Livingston section of Staten Island, north of...
on the now-defunct North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway
Staten Island Railway
The Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, publicly known as MTA Staten Island Railway or SIR, is the operator of the lone rapid transit line in the borough of Staten Island, New York City, USA...
bore the name Sailors Snug Harbor, but was actually located almost one-half mile to the east of the property's main entrance; the stop immediately to the west of this — known as Livingston
Livingston, Staten Island
Livingston is a name sometimes applied to the northeastern portion of West Brighton, a neighborhood located on the North Shore of New York City's borough of Staten Island.-Geography:...
— was actually the closest station to the center's front gate.
Visitors to Snug Harbor can access it via public transportation by taking the S40 Richmond Terrace bus from the St. George Ferry Terminal to the Snug Harbor 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
Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger is the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine's celebrated "Sky Line" column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City...
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
Minard Lafever
Minard Lafever was an influential American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century.-Life and career:...
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 1990s.
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 200 feet (61 m) 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
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...
.
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. Its 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 BloombergMichael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/nyregion/06donate.html?ex=1278302400&en=93a1beabd4ede5b8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss http://carnegie.org/sub/news/anon2005.html 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 GardenStaten Island Botanical Garden
The Staten Island Botanical Garden is part of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, located on the north shore of Staten Island.The garden includes The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden, built in 1998....
maintains extensive gardens including The White Garden, inspired by Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
's famous garden at Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst
Sissinghurst is a small village in the county of Kent in England. Originally called Milkhouse Street , Sissinghurst changed its name in the 1850s, possibly to avoid association with the smuggling and cockfighting activities of the Hawkhurst Gang.The nearest railway station is at...
; Connie Gretz’s Secret Garden, complete with a castle, a maze and walled secret garden; and The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden
The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden
The New York Chinese Scholar's Garden 寄興園 is a part of the Staten Island Botanical Garden, located in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. The garden materials were shipped to Staten Island in the spring of 1998 and the garden opened in June 1999...
, an authentic, walled, Chinese garden
Chinese garden
The Chinese garden, also known as a Chinese classical garden, is a style of landscape garden which has evolved for more than three thousand years, and which is inspired by Chinese literature, Chinese painting and Chinese philosophy...
in the style of the famous gardens of Suzhou
Suzhou
Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...
.
Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art
Established in 1977, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary ArtNewhouse Center for Contemporary Art
The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art is an art museum in Staten Island, New York. It was founded in 1977 inside the architecturally significant Greek Revival buildings of Sailors Snug Harbor....
exhibits the works of local and international artists. The center, which also provides artist-in-residence exhibitions, 15000 square feet (1,393.5 m²) gallery space.
The Noble Maritime Collection
The Noble Maritime Collection is a museum with a particular emphasis on the work of artist/lithographer/sailor John A. Noble (1913–1983). The Washington Post called the exhibit of a houseboat that Noble converted into an artist's studio "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
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
called the Noble collection "an unsung gem among New York museums."
The Staten Island Children's Museum
The Staten Island Children's MuseumStaten Island Children's Museum
The Staten Island Children's Museum is a children's museum on the grounds of Sailors' Snug Harbor on Staten Island, New York, opened in 1976 following community and government support for the project. The museum stresses a hands-on interactive approach to its exhibits and currently offers visitors...
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. GeorgeSt. George, Staten Island
St. George is a neighborhood on the northeastern tip of Staten Island in New York City, where the Kill Van Kull enters Upper New York Bay. It is the most densely developed neighborhood on Staten Island, and the location of the administrative center for the borough and for the coterminous Richmond...
that includes exhibits relating to natural history and 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 850-seat auditorium. The Music Hall opened in July 1892 with a cantata, "The Rose Maiden," which was attended by 600 residents of the home who sat on plain wooden seats, while the venue's 300 upholstered balcony seats were filled by trustees and their guests.The Greek Revival Music Hall is a main attraction of performing arts among the historical structures in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. It is the second oldest music hall in New York City and it is considered one of the "architectural gems" of Manhattan.
In Literature, Film, and the Arts
In an article first published in Ainslee's MagazineAinslee's Magazine
Ainslee's Magazine was an American literary periodical published from 1897 to 1926. It was originally published as a humor magazine called The Yellow Kid, based on the popular comic strip character. It was renamed Ainslee's, the following year....
's December 1898 issue, titled "When The Sails Are Furled: Sailor’s Snug Harbor," the soon to be famous novelist Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
provided an amusing nonfiction account of the obstreperous and frequently intoxicated residents of Snug Harbor.
The 2009 illustrated novel Peter Pigeon of Snug Harbor, by Ed Weiss, is set almost entirely at Snug Harbor, spanning the period from its days as an old sailors' home to its transition to an arts center.http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sailors_Snug_Harbor_dancing_sailors-1-.jpg
The last scene of the movie Fur
Fur (film)
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus is a 2006 film starring Nicole Kidman as iconic American photographer Diane Arbus, who was known for her strange, disturbing images.-Plot synopsis:...
, which was supposed to recreate a nudist camp, was filmed there in July 2006.
Part of Lady Gaga's music video for her fifth single off Born This Way, Marry The Night
Marry the Night
"Marry the Night" is a song by American recording artist Lady Gaga. It was released as the fifth single from her second studio album, Born This Way . The song was written and produced by Lady Gaga and Fernando Garibay, and was recorded on the tour bus during The Monster Ball Tour with Garibay...
, was filmed at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center.
External links
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 2 drawings, 16 photos, 11 data pages, and 2 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Dormitory A, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 5 photos and supplemental materials at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Dormitory B, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 5 photos and supplemental materials at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Dormitory C & Administration Building, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 7 drawings, 7 photos and 8 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Dormitory D, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 7 drawings, 2 photos and 5 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Dormitory E, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 6 drawings and 5 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Dining Hall, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 1 photo, 5 data pages, and supplemental materials at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Chapel, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 6 drawings, 2 photos, and 5 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Residences, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 2 photos, 4 data pages, and supplemental materials at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, North Gatehouse, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 1 drawing, 1 photo, and 4 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, West Gatehouse, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 1 drawing, 1 photo, and 4 data pages at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, East Gatehouse, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 1 photo, 3 data pages, and supplemental materials at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Governor's House, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 6 drawings and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Captain's Cottage No. 2, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 6 drawings and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Recreation Building, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 5 drawings, 2 photos, and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Music Hall, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 5 drawings, 2 photos, and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Bandstand, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 1 photo and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Sailors' Snug Harbor, Bandstand, Richmond Terrace, New Brighton, Richmond, NY: 1 photo and 1 data page at Historic American Building Survey
- Snug Harbor Cultural Center
- Noble Maritime Collection
- Staten Island Children's Museum
- Staten Island Museum
- Sailors' Snug Harbor Archives
- Art Lab
- Photos of Snug Harbor