Healing Garden
To commemorate the 267 Firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11/2001, Snug Harbor collaborated with landscape architects known for thoughtfully designing reflective spaces and gardens. The Healing Garden serves as a daily respite for members of Rescue 5, Staten Islanders, and visitors alike. In 2008, the Healing Garden won the Achievement Award for Natural Beauty at the 47th Annual Building Awards Program hosted by the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce.
After Superstorm Sandy tore through Staten Island without regret, community members expressed their concern and volunteers took action. Snug Harbor was touched by the number of volunteers that helped Snug Harbor return to a functional state. Fellow not-for-profit organization, New Yorkers for Parks planted daffodils in the Healing Garden as a part of The Daffodil Project even after the storm hit. The Daffodil Project was founded in 2001 to serve as a living memorial to 9/11/2001. The daffodils coupled with the design of the Healing Garden create a touching living memorial to those who lost their lives on that fateful day.
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Governor’s Mansion
Even though Governor Melville was known for instilling fear in Snug Harbor residents through a series of stringent temperance policies and strict punishments, he was rather generous to his family. The original Governor’s Mansion seen in the pictures above was occupied by Governor Melville and members of the Melville family. His unmarried sister, mother, and wife all lived with him in the Governor’s Mansion and admired him greatly. Governor Melville’s brother, the notable American novelist Herman Melville, loved to visit his family at Snug Harbor. Herman Melville’s visits to Snug Harbor were confirmed by a letter to a friend in 1877 that stated “Last evening I went down to the Island an anchored for the night in the Snug Harbor.”
In December of 2012, Snug Harbor partnered with Make Music New York for the first time to present the Winter Solstice Festival 2012. Baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert presented a new realization of Franz Schubert’s 1828 song cycle Winterreise at Snug Harbor. Starting at the Governor’s Mansion, the performance migrated throughout the campus to outdoor locations that reflected the vivid imagery for Wilhelm Muller’s poetry and Schubert’s music. Audience members provided accompaniment through hand-held radios, emitting the original piano music as performed by Timothy Lang and reimagined by sound designer Jonathan Zalben. The production was directed by JJ Hudson with German-to-English supertitles created by students from Parsons The New School for Design.
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Veteran’s Memorial Hall
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Veteran’s Memorial Hall
When it was first completed in 1856, the Veteran’s Memorial Hall or chapel did not have a tower. The original plan called for a tower but the Trustees of Sailors’ Snug Harbor did not approve it. In 1883, Snug Harbor’s carpenter, Richard Smyth constructed the tower that exists today. It is unknown as to whether Smyth used the original blueprints or constructed it himself.
The Trustees of Sailors’ Snug Harbor rode the wave of religious revivalism in the nineteenth century and mandated that all sailors attend religious services. The religious services were delivered in the Presbyterian and Episcopalian traditions. After the VMH officially opened in 1856, Rev. Phillips dramatically addressed the group of sailors and stated:
You are here, however, not to spend your time in idleness, in the mere animal indulgence of eating, and drinking, and sleeping; but you are here to refit. Your voyage has not yet terminated; the most important part of it is yet before you; there are quicksands, concealed rocks, whirlpools, and yawning gulphs. There may be a darker severer and more terrific storm, and a more awful warring of the elements still in reserve for you, than any through which yu have ever passed—you may yet be hopelessly wrecked, and left to sink into the deep and unfathomable abyss. Have you prepared your bark for this last part of your voyage, and are you sure all is right?
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Lion’s Sensory Garden with World Trade Center Educational Tribute
The World Trade Center Educational Tribute is staffed by FDNY volunteers. Used as a space for reflection as well as an educational tool, the World Trade Center Educational tribute preserves the memory of those who were lost on 9/11. The Center is free to enter and explore.
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International Craft Center | The George Way Collection
The International Craft Center will grant visitors unprecedented access into the history of art through collaborations with art historians, local artists, or collectors. One notable collaboration already exists with the tireless Dutch art collector, George Way. His collection of priceless Dutch furniture will help Snug Harbor tell the story of how Dutch explorers and settlers shaped not only New York’s history, but the history of Snug Harbor.
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Randall Memorial
On June 1, 1801, Sir Robert Richard Randall signed his will. In addition to the bequest for Sailors’ Snug Harbor, his will also contained many smaller, yet equally generous bequests. He left his gold sleeve buttons and an annuity to his housekeeper Betsy Hart. To his overseer, Adam Shields, he gave his gold watch and forty pounds. It was also documented that one of his servants was to receive his shoe and knee buckles. The photograph above was taken during the early 20th century during an unknown occasion. Historians surmise that the Randall Memorial or obelisk was decorated to celebrate an anniversary.
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Visitor’s Center, Building C
Noted as the single largest group of Greek Revival architecture in the United States, Snug Harbor is home to 28 buildings with over 1500 square feet of exhibition space. The first building built on Snug Harbor’s campus was the Main Hall. This exquisitely designed Greek Revival building currently houses an 18-month, interactive, multi-media exhibition called Island Sounds: A 500 Year Music Mash-Up. The exhibition includes memorabilia, instruments, artifacts, photos and videos from musicians and artists who were born, based or performed on Staten Island throughout history. Island Sounds features a timeline of Staten Island’s music history that begins pre-1500, with songs of the Lunaape Indians, and includes Dutch tavern music of New Amsterdam of the 1600s, 1850 classical opera, 1900 vaudeville, jazz of the 1920s, the Big Band era of 1940, disco and folk music of the 1970s, and today’s rock and rap.
David Johansen on Island Sounds: A 500 Year Music Mash-Up:
I grew up just a couple of blocks from Snug Harbor and when I was a kid this used to be part of my stomping ground,” said David Johansen of the New York Dolls and Buster Poindexter fame. “It’s so great that Snug Harbor is so vital again.
Inside the Main Hall, the galleries contain rare and historic items from many of the artists’ personal collections. For example:
Mike Appel—a Staten Island resident since 1978—has graciously loaned several items from his time as manager, arranger, and producer for Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, including: Rare 1972 demos of two Bruce Springsteen songs: Street Queen and Circus Song; the latter which became Wild Billy’s Circus Story
RZA’s keyboard used on the Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 breakthrough album Enter the Wu (36 Chambers) and photos from his recent pilgrimage to a Shaolin temple in China
Born This Way LP autographed by Lady Gaga and storyboards from her Marry the Night video shot at Snug Harbor
A unique collection of hotel keys belonging to journeyman drummer Sandy Gennaro (Pat Travers, Cyndi Lauper, The Monkees, Bo Diddley)
Guitars from Vito Bratta (White Lion), Richie Castellano (Blue Oyster Cult), and Steve Augeri (Journey)