Snug Harbor fun ctioned as a tidy community of its own, with the sailors housed in monumental Greek Revival buildings, staff living in rather more modest houses off to the right. The community grew its own vegetables, milked its own cows, ran its own cottage industries and buried its own dead. Randall 's enormously rich bequest even enabled the Harbor to support a music hall fo r vaudeville shows.
Treasure of Snug Harbor by Peter Stanford In August 150 yea rs ago, in 1833, 37 sailors arrived at Sailors' Snug Harbo r, a haven provided for seamen worn out in thei r call ing. The faci lity had been establ ished with a grant provided in the will of Robe rt Richard Randall , son of a wealthy 18th century privateersman and himself a seafaring man . By 1900, as many as 900 men were housed in the elegant Greek Revival buildings planted in a spacious park on Staten Island 's northern shore, fronting on New York Harbor. After a century the need for the facility began to decline as social welfare programs took over. The income to support it also waned. A smal ler and smaller number of old seamen inhabited the echoing halls. In 1976, informed that they could not demolish the Landmark buildings, the Trustees of Sailors' Snug Harbor moved the fac ility to modern quarte rs in the quiet North Carolina commun ity of Sea Level. The City of New York assumed responsibility for the grounds and buildings, responding to the call of civic leaders who recognized the priceless heritage embodied in the prope rty. A not-forprofit corporation , Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Inc., was established to operate a multifarious program . Part of that program is an ambitious maritime historical effort . With vigor and prescience, Historic Site Director Mel Hardin has reached out to build a permanent collection including such items as the bowpiece of the armored cruiser New York. Exhibitions have included " The Lighthouse," one of the most comprehensive presentations of this subject ever undertaken . And currentl y, through the end of the year, there's an exhibition on the lives of the men, using artifacts from the Ba rbara Johnson Collection, South Street and other sources, called "Jack's Last Port ." A Randall Society has been established , which sponsors a lecture series. Ove r the years, people looked in on the "Snugs," as the seafarers were called : Bill Doerflinger, who recorded their songs, the harbor artist John Noble, who was their prophet- my last visit with John was to sit in with him on an oral history program at Snug Harbor. I had been there before to visit with such men as Captain James E . Roberts, a wonderfully dignified, spruce, twinkling old mariner who had sailed in the South Street Museum ship Wavertree in 1897-8 (SH19: 12-13). And New Yorkers who cherish seafaring and seafarers gathered there to pay tribute to Susan and John Noble, both lost to us earlier this year. There is a strong sense of place about Snug Harbor today. But it is not the 26 classic buildings, not the 80 acres of landscaped parkland , or even the stained glass windows and growing maritime collection. It is none of these, but rather the men named in Randall's will , the "aged , dec repit and worn-out sailors,'' who are the real treasure of Snug Harbo r.
SEA HISffiRY, FALL 1983
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