Sailors' Snug harbor owes its existence to the Privateering that took place in this country during the French and Indian War (1754–1763) or the Seven Years' War. The Randall family would become very wealthy by gaining a privateer's license and taking French Merchant Ships. The first captured French ship brought into New York harbor in 1756 was done so by Captain Thomas Randall. Four months later, the New York Mercury reported that Thomas Randall had brought in one of the finest looking French Prizes (Barry, 3). By December of 1756, Captain Randall wrote to the owners he worked for, John Aspinwall and John Kortright, explaining that he had captured two French vessels, salvaged one more, and joined up with another New Yorker John Jauncey, to take more prizes. By the time Thomas Randall's Ship the Gold Finch returned to New York, it had escorted eight prizes into New York Harbor. Thomas Randall then became Partners with Aspinwall and Kortright, in which they together owned three other privateering Ships. By the time the war ended, Thomas Randall was wealthy at the age of 32. (Barry, 4). He invested in real estate and even produced an ironworks factory that turned out stoves, pots, forge hammers, etc.( Barry, 5).
During the American Revolution, the Randall Family went back to Privateering, funding the taking of British Merchant Ships. They set up operations in Elizabeth Town, New Jersey. It is thought that Robert Richard Randall, Thomas Randall's son that would later be called Captain Randall, shipped as a Privateer during the revolution (Barry, 7). The Randall's came back to New York after the British withdrew in November of 1783 and continued their Ironworks and developed a dry goods business. Thomas Randall also helped rebuild the New York Chamber of commerce and the Marine Society (Barry, 9). He bought Minto a 21-acre Manhattan Farm in 1790, and he would live there until he died in 1797. The Minto farm would then pass to Robert Richard Randall. Taking the role of a country gentleman, Robert Richard Randall would retire to Minto but would only live four more years, dying in 1801 (Barry, 17).
Robert Randall's Will bequeathed most of his estate, including his farm, to religious and civic leaders who were instructed to create a Marine Hospital to care for aged and decrepit sailors (Barry, 19). The name of the Marine Hospital was to be called Sailors’ Snug Harbor. According to legend Robert Randall asked Alexander Hamilton what the best way to dispose of his estate was. Hamilton is said to have replied, " It came from the Sea, let it go back to the Sea (Barry, 19).
In Two Years Before the Mast, Henry Dana states that “a sailor’s life is at best but a mixture of a little good with much evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with the revolting, the sublime with the commonplace, and the solemn with the ludicrous"(Dana). The landsman had a hard time understanding the seaman, and, in some cases, seamen built an unsavory reputation that helped taint the population against them. Some Sailors drank heavily, spent money lavishly, and ended up destitute and needing to ship on any old ship. Stories like the Money Box, from WW Jacob's,Snug Harbor :a Collection of Short Stories, and Ned Myers "A Life Before the Mast" , gives a good look back at some of this behavior of Seamen. However, there was no comparison to the good that all Seamen produced for the small infractions that a few sailors imposed on society. Their hard labor brought whale oil to New England, hardwoods to build furniture, and all forms of foodstuffs, etc. Sailors also mapped the coasts and served on Naval Vessels. Robert Randall knew that Sailors that returned from the Sea, injured or decrepit, found little or no support. It would not be until after the War of 1812 that Religious leaders began to put together the Sailors bethel and the Sailors homes. In New York City, the New York Bible Society created an organization in April 1819 dedicated to promoting the Gospel among Seaman. This society brought about the first Mariners Church (Seymour, 42). By 1825, the interest in the spiritual welfare of seamen would allow the formation of the Seamans Friend Society, a predecessor of "The Woman's Seamen’s Friend Society" .The Woman's Seamen’s Friend Society formed in 1859. In 1832, a hospital for sick and disabled seamen was opened in New Haven, Connecticut (Seymour, 43).
However, the trustees of Sailors Snug Harbor would take 30 years to enact Robert Randall's Will. The Will faced litigation after 1801 and up to the 1830s because of how the Will was worded. The Will named the Governor of NY, the president of the Marine Society of NY, and leaders of the Presbyterian Church, as overseers of the Minto Farm, with a charge to build a haven for decrepit Sailors. As the property value of the Minto Farm sky rocked, as the wealthy of New York left the Bowery and began migrating to Manhattan, distant relatives with lawyers of the caliber Daniel Webster began lawsuits against the Will of Robert Randall. It would not be until 1832 that the last case against the Will was dismissed by the Supreme Court of the United States. De Witt Clinton, the Governor of New York, put to rest any future lawsuits against Robert Randall's Will. At the time of the Will, the laws of New York stated that "a man could not by will vest his estate in a permanent official body, by so doing he was creating, in effect, a corporation" (Bobbe', 120). DeWitt Clinton presented a bill to Albany that allowed Robert Randall's Will to be legal and the cooperate powers of the trustees to be enacted. The bill eventually passed, insuring a home for sick and decrepit Sailors (Bobbe, 120).
The Minto Farm was divided into building lots to support the Sailor's Home. The most valuable of these lots were along Broadway. Between 1832 – 1833, 13 Greek Revival Row houses were built near Washington Square North (Barry, 52). Families related to the original builders were still living in these Row Houses in the 1930s. The Rows neighbor on the east side of Washington Park was the University of New York, constructed in 1835. The University Building was the first example of an English Collegiate Gothic in the United States( Barry, 56).
In the 1850s, retail began replacing residences on Broadway. Hotels and restaurants that became the haunts of the Southern Gentry and music Halls and numerous shops sprung up along Broadway. The trustees of Sailor Snug Harbor decided to rent the harbor land facing Broadway to Alexander Turney Stewart, an Irish-born Scott. He would form the first retail department store in America and employ 800 women, dressmakers, and seamstresses. Every day, except Sundays, around 15,000 shoppers, mostly females, shoped at Stewart's (Barry, 58). A new Grace Church and the St. Denis Hotel were constructed soon after Stewart's. These were architectural masterpieces that were designed by James Renwick Jr. and they along with Steward's ushered in what was called the Ladies Mile. A place for women to shop and socialize and celebrate with their families.
Sailor's Snug Harbor was the recipient of the wealth that was produced by the land rentals of the Minto Farm. On Staten Island, the cornerstone of five Greek Revival Buildings initially planned out by Minard Lafever was laid on October 21, 1831 (Barry, 40). The first building of what later would be called Temple Row opened on August 1, 1833.
In 1834 there were 83 seamen in residence at Sailor's Snug Harbor. It became evident to the trustees that more buildings would have to be constructed. Similar to the Original Building C, buildings D and E were constructed between 1840 and 1842 (Barry, 42). By the midcentury, a Governor's Mansion, a Physician Mansion, as well as a hospital and a church, were constructed. By the 1890s, the hospital included an x shaped Sanitarium, Randall's Memorial Church, and a Music Hall. The Music Hall would show early movies to the Seamen in the early 20th century (Barry, 43). “In all fifty-five structures were built, including two more dormitories, cottages for staff members, a powerhouse and a morgue.” (Barry, 43).
Who were the Seamen that Snug Harbor was built for? The men of Snug Harbor served on many ships in different capacities, and when they were old and feeble or worn out, they could find a home at Snug Harbor. Why do men go down to the Sea in Ships? Dana would state, in Two Years Before the Mast, that “There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially to a young mind, which has done more to man navies, and fill merchantmen, than all the pressgangs of Europe.” (Dana). In Moby-Dick, the narrator, Ishmael, states, “whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul, …, I quietly take to the ship.”(Barry, 77). The seamen at Snug Harbor were of this mantel. They took to the Sea to serve in the US Navy, work on Merchant ships, Whale, explore, and map the Coasts.
Robert Randall knew the fate of those who shipped, and he ensured that these men when in need of a home, would find one at Snug Harbor. When Theodore Dreiser visited the Harbor in the early 1900s, he wrote the following for the Seamen he met. “They that go down to the Sea in ships, that do business in great waters, lead a life of peril, hardship and excitement . . . When the storms have been weathered, and the harbors reached they are usually ready for whatever good things the land has to offer, and when old age overtakes them to settle down about a quiet fireside . . . among them none holds so high a place as Sailors' Snug Harbor . . . unquestionably the most famous sailors' retreat in the world . . . One thousand old men, gathered from all quarters of the world under a single roof, make a curious and sometimes querulous collection . . . They may walk on the lawn, sit in the sunshine, dream under the trees, and there is nothing to disturb. When they become weary and are laid to rest, a little cemetery whose white tombstones may be seen back of this pastoral abode receives their bodies and then they are left serene” (Theodore Dreiser 1904) (French).
Even Hollywood would tell the tale of an almost defeated Will that would eventually supply a rest home for weary sailors in the Ghost and Mrs Muir (R.A. Dick, 3)(R.A.Dick, 145)