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.
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