Staten Island Museum (Sailors' Snug Harbor Building A)

1000A Richmond Terrace | also 1000 Richmond Terrace | Snug Harbor | built 1900

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1879

    Richard Smyth's Building A completes the west end of Snug Harbor's Temple Row

    Building A, the westernmost of the five connected Greek Revival structures called Temple Row, was the work of architect Richard Smyth and was finished in 1879-1880 as a dormitory for retired sailors, as was Building E at the other end. It has two stories over a raised basement plus an attic under a gable roof, and a stone portico of six columns carrying a classical pediment. Brick passages known as hyphens join it to the rest of the row.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1879

    Governor Thomas Melville, Herman Melville's brother, oversees the last Temple Row buildings

    Retired sea captain Thomas Melville, brother of the Moby-Dick author Herman Melville, became Snug Harbor's third governor in 1867 and oversaw construction of the final two Temple Row buildings, finished in 1879-1880. A strict disciplinarian, he placed rule-breaking residents on a 'taboo list' that denied them tobacco and kept them on the grounds. Under his governorship, black residents had to sleep and eat in segregated areas.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1965

    October 14

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates Building A over the trustees' objections

    At a September 21, 1965 hearing on six proposed landmarks at Sailors' Snug Harbor, five witnesses spoke in favor and two representatives of the trustees spoke against. A speaker for the Society of Architectural Historians said the loss of any part of the Greek Revival group would be a matter of national concern. The commission designated the dormitory on October 14, 1965.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1968

    A state appeals court upholds Building A's landmark status as the trustees seek to replace it

    In the mid-1960s the trustees planned a clinic, apartments and cottages in place of four dormitories, A, B, D and E, all cited for code violations. After the 1965 designations, a state court ruled the trustees could not be made to pay the upkeep the landmark status required, which in effect voided it, and the commission sued. The Appellate Division upheld the designations in 1968, and the trustees later abandoned plans to tear down some buildings.

    “The Supreme Court's Appellate Division upheld the landmark designations in 1968.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1984

    A Staten Island Museum renovation of Buildings A and B is announced, then stalls for decades

    After the city acquired the grounds in the 1970s, the Staten Island Museum said it would relocate to Snug Harbor, and a renovation for it covering Buildings A and B was announced in 1984. Cost overruns delayed the project and both structures stood empty for decades. The city put more money into the work in 2007, and construction on the museum's buildings resumed in 2011.

    “Renovations of buildings A and B for the Staten Island Museum were delayed by cost overruns, and the structures remained empty for decades.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2015

    September

    The Staten Island Museum reopens in a rebuilt Building A

    The Staten Island Museum, started in 1881 by a group of local naturalists, reopened at Snug Harbor in September 2015. The mainly city-funded renovation of Building A cost $23 million, added more than 25,000 square feet and was designed for LEED Gold certification with geothermal heating and cooling. A life-size mastodon replica greets visitors, and fossils of the animal from local finds are on display in the new lobby.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 4 buildings with stories in Snug Harbor