Also Visit NY State Arts
For a wonderful day outing for families, visit the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden on Staten Island. The center's 28 buildings are located on 83 acres of beautifully landscaped and naturalistic surroundings, with room to run around and have picnics. In addition to its park-like setting, Snug Harbor is home to the Botanical Garden, Staten Island Children's Museum, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, the Noble Maritime Museum, the Children's Harbor Pre-School, the Art Lab, the Studio Artist Community and the Staten Island Children's Theatre.
Originally called Sailors' Snug Harbor, the center was built in the 1800s by a successful shipping magnate, Robert Richard Randall, as a retirement home for aged seamen. The complex boasts one of the region's finest collections of Greek Revival architecture, surrounded by other buildings in the Italianate, Beaux-Arts and Second Empire styles.
Concerts and performances are held at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center year-round. In the summer, free family performances feature popular and ethnic music, dance, juggling, clowning and puppetry. Guided tours depart from the gift shop on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 pm.
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Ongoing Designed as a place for quiet reflection, the permanent installation will be manned by FDNY firefighters from Rescue Five and is open every week from 10 am to 4 pm, Wednesday through Sunday. It is in Building N, in the heart of Snug Harbor’s grounds.
Ongoing Students observe a variety of mythological images gracing the buildings of the Snug Harbor site-with a special fcous on the historic constellation windows in the visitors center-and discuss sailors' myths associated with them. They then devise their own original constellation and write a brief myth explaining its "origin."
All Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden Listings