Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden (New York City, New York)

 museum, interesting place, botanical garden, historic landmark

Robert Richard Randall founded Sailors' Snug Harbor in 1801, leaving his Manhattan estate to the formation of an institution to care for "aged, decrepit and worn-out" seamen. It was eventually built in Staten Island and opened in 1833. One stately Greek Revival building was built, which was eventually followed by four more, constituting some of the finest Greek Revival architecture in America. More buildings--60 in all--soon followed in other architectural styles such as Beaux Arts, Second Empire, and Italianate.

At its peak in the late 19th century, over 1,000 retired seaman called Snug Harbor Home. Retiree numbers declined over the following decades, especially after the introduction of Social Security, until less than 200 residents remained in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the last residents were relocated to Snug Harbor on Nelson Bay in Sea Level, North Carolina.

Sailors' Snug Harbor National Historic Landmark is considered "a rare surviving example of urban planning, landscaping, and buildings in the Greek Revival style, unequaled in the United States for scale, extent, and quality."

The area now houses Snug Harbor Cultural Center's own Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, a Music Hall, the Art Lab Art School, the Staten Island Botanical Garden, the Staten Island Children's Museum and the Noble Maritime Collection. It is also the site of the yearly dazzling NYC Winter Lantern Festival which runs through mid-January.

1000 Richmond Terrace
Staten Island, NY 10301
(718) 448-2500

www.snug-harbor.org
www.scoutshonor.tv/VENUESSTAGES/SNUG-HARBOR-CULTURAL-CE...
www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/arts/design/holiday-lights-n...