STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Present-day Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden has 28 buildings on 83 acres of land, and offers a variety of cultural experiences.
The Art Lab, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Noble Maritime Collection, Snug Harbor Artist Residency Program, Staten Island Museum, The Music Hall, the Staten Island Children's Museum and Heritage Farm are all located on the property, along with nine distinctive botanical gardens, the New York Chinese Scholar's Garden and the Richmond County Savings Foundation Tuscan Garden.
Before Snug Harbor became the experience it is today, it was a "haven for aged, decrepit and worn out sailors," earning it the name Sailor's Snug Harbor.
Eight facts about Sailor's Snug Harbor:
- Robert Richard Randall, noted sea captain, founded Sailor's Snug Harbor in 1801; it was originally three buildings.
- Sailor's Snug Harbor became a self-sustaining community of 900 residents with a working farm, dairy, bakery, chapel, sanatorium, hospital, music hall and cemetery. By the 20
- The buildings were erected in the Beaux Arts, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire, Italianate, and Greek Revival styles. High Victorian components were also added to the buildings.
- The introductions of Social Security and Medicare caused a decline in the population of Snug Harbor's retirement home and hospital, which were the first care options that sailors were offered.
- The sanatorium, hospital, farm buildings and service buildings were demolished in 1951, and the Randall Memorial Church in 1952.
- The New York City Landmarks Commission designated the five Greek Revival front buildings and the chapel New York City's first landmark structures in the 1960s, and they were also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- In the 1970s, activists worked with local officials to secure the 83-acre property for the city of New York, and in 1975 it was transformed into Snug Harbor Cultural Center.
- Snug Harbor Cultural Center combined with the Staten Island Botanical Gardens in 2008 and became Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden.