The Sailor's Snug Harbor

by Barry, Gerald J.

• ISBN13: 9780823220724
• ISBN10: 0823220729
• Edition: Illus.
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-01-01
• Publisher: Fordham University Press

Summary

Four days before his death on June 5th, 1801, Robert Richard Randall signed a remarkable will, which provided that his mansion and 21-acre farm be used to maintain and support "aged, decrepit, and worn out sailors." However, as the 1820's approached, and land values began to soar, the legislature was asked to modify the Randall will so that Sailor's Snug Harbor could be built somewhere other than the Randall farm. In May 1831, a 130-acre farm overlooking Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull was purchased on Staten Island for $10,000. Year-by-year, buildings were added until there were 55 major structures. The Harbor produced its own electricity and steam, grew its own food, and had its own water supply, a church, cemetery, hospital, theater, library. At the start of the twentieth century, more than 1,000 old sailors were in residence. Beginning in 1950, as part of a 'modernization and improvement plan,' two dozen buildings on the Staten Island property were bulldozed. Next on the destruction list were the Sailors' Snug Harbor dormitories which would be replaced by a 120-room modern infirmary insisted upon by the State Department of Health. At this point, the city's new Landmarks Preservation Commission stepped in. On October 14, 1965, at its first designation hearing, the Commission landmarked and saved the old dormitories. Property for a new institution for the old sailors was found in Sea Level, North Carolina, down the road from a hospital just taken over by Duke University Medical Center. Citing the proximity of Duke's hospital to the new Harbor site, New York's surrogate court approved relocation. Mayor John Lindsay, in June 1973, announced a plan to turn the Sailors' Snug Harbor buildings into a national showplace of culture and education. Over the years, the Sailors' Snug Harbor has housed various cultural institutions, including the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Arts, the Staten Island Botanical Gardens, and the Staten Island Children's Museum. Today, Snug Harbor is the most important cultural asset on Staten Island, and one of the fastest-growing arts centers in the city.

Author Biography

Gerald J. Barry is author of The Marine Society of the City of New York, 1770-1995: A Concise History.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	xi
A Note About Street Names	xvii
Thomas Randall: Privateer, Patriot, Entrepreneur	1	(22)
The Business of Privateering	2	(2)
Peace and Prosperity	4	(1)
Eve of Revolution	5	(3)
Exile and Restoration	8	(2)
A Randall or Two, Too Many	10	(1)
The Grand Convention	11	(1)
Randall's Great Barge	12	(1)
The Randall Farm	13	(2)
Robert Richard Randall: Gentleman Farmer	15	(2)
The Randall Will	17	(6)
Getting Underway	23	(12)
The Trustees Finally Meet	23	(6)
Litigation: Collateral Heirs	29	(6)
Randall's Plan Fulfilled: Staten Island	35	(10)
Greek Revival Comes to Staten Island	36	(5)
Old Seamen in Their Final Harbor	41	(2)
The Harbor Expands	43	(2)
Manhattan: Moving Uptown	45	(30)
Renewed Prosperity	45	(3)
The City Moves Uptown	48	(2)
Washington Square	50	(7)
Beyond the Square	57	(1)
A.T. Stewart and Ladies Mile	58	(3)
The Anthenaeum Quarter	61	(4)
A Parisian Touch: Red Lights and Riots	65	(1)
Astor Place: Opera Tragique	66	(2)
The Civil War	68	(1)
The Draft Riots	69	(1)
The Plot to Burn New York	70	(5)
Why Men Go Down to the Sea	75	(34)
Meeting the Residents	78	(3)
A Visit to the Haror	81	(8)
Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle	89	(6)
The Governors	95	(14)
Putting Down and Building Up	109	(16)
Henry George and the Randall Farm	111	(2)
Washington Square in Transition	113	(1)
Bourgeois and Bohemian	113	(4)
Fires and a Subway	117	(8)
Depression and War	125	(10)
Surviving at Sailors' Snug Harbor	128	(1)
Getting Out the Vote, Finally	129	(1)
World War II	130	(5)
Landmarking	135	(14)
Victory for the Ladies in Tennis Shoes	136	(4)
Troubles in the postwar Years	140	(1)
The New York Times Scoops The Harbor	141	(1)
Downsizing	142	(1)
Overhauling Management	143	(2)
Troubled Neighbors and Lawsuits	145	(4)
The Voyage to Sea Level	149	(20)
The Mayor Comes Aboard	153	(1)
The Choice: Scylla or Charybdis	154	(1)
The Search Begins	155	(1)
Challenging Randall's Will	156	(3)
Action at Sea Level	159	(2)
Shipping Out	161	(1)
The New Home	162	(3)
A Changing Cast	165	(4)
New Directions	169	(16)
The Options	170	(2)
A Case Study	172	(1)
Change of Course	173	(1)
New Life at the Old Home	174	(1)
Back Home	174	(1)
Visiting the Cultural Center	174	(11)
Appendix 1: Last Will and Testament of the Late Robert R. Randall, Esq	185	(4)
Appendix 2: Good Times/Hard Times	189	(2)
Bibliography	191	(10)
Picture Credits	201	(2)
Index	203