Snug Harbor

About

Snug Harbor is an 83-acre (34 ha) campus containing more than two dozen architecturally significant buildings set along the Kill Van Kull on the North Shore of Staten Island in New York City, New York, US. It functioned as Sailors' Snug Harbor, a retirement home for sailors, during the 19th and 20th centuries. Since 1976, the buildings and grounds have been managed by Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden as a cultural center complex and used by various cultural and arts organizations. The entire complex is a National Historic Landmark district, and several structures are New York City designated landmarks.

Captain Robert Richard Randall bequeathed funds and land for a sailors' home upon his 1801 death. Fights over his will delayed the complex's development and forced its trustees to find a new site, where building C, the first structure at Snug Harbor, opened in 1833. Additional structures were built throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Following a prolonged preservation dispute and several redevelopment proposals in the 1960s and 1970s, the institution moved to North Carolina. The Snug Harbor Cultural Center, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, has gradually renovated the grounds and many buildings over the years.