Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden – Staten Island, New York

Isaac Kremer/ June 24, 2026/ AI Assisted, Field Notes, garden, museum, Physical/ 0 comments

MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

• Staten Island Museum
• Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art
• Noble Maritime Collection
• Art Lab: School of Fine and Applied Arts & Gallery
• Children’s Museum

BUILDINGS AND ORGANIZATIONS

• Building B (Future expansion site of Staten Island Museum) .
• Building E
• Ground Floor: Staten Island Conservatory of Music
• First Floor: Celebrate at Snug Harbor Administration
• Second Floor: Musician Studios
• Ground Floor: Harbor Room, Learning Center, Columcille Irish Cultural Center
• First Floor: Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art
• Second Floor: Dance Studios
• Third Floor: Children’s Harbor Montessori School
• Ground Floor: Staten Island Museum Administration & Archives, Second Floor: Artist Studios
• Matron’s House*
• Maintenance Building*
• World Trade Center Educational Tribute **
• Snug Harbor Administration
• Winter Garden
• Great Hall
• Veteran’s Memorial Hall*
• Music Hall +
• Governor’s House
• Carpenter’s Shop

GARDENS

• Rose Garden
• Pond Garden
• Perennial Garden
• Carl Grillo Glass House
• Potager Garden
• Herb Garden
• White Garden
• Allee
• Tropical Border (Seasonal . Summer)
• Butterfly Garden
• Shade Garden
• Lion’s Sensory Garden
• RCSF Tuscan Garden
• Connie Gretz Secret Garden
• Healing Garden
• New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden
• Wetlands

AGRICULTURE

• Heritage Farm
• NYC Compost Project Compost Demo Site

Governor’s House: The historic Governor’s House located at Sailors’ Snug Harbor. Despite its local name, historical records indicate that this house was actually never inhabited by the institution’s Governor. Instead, it originally served as the residence for the chief steward, clerk, or bookkeeper of the facility. Designed by architect Richard P. Smyth and constructed around 1880, the structure showcases a distinct Victorian style, complete with brick walls, an elegant wrap-around front porch, and tall, arched window bays. Sailors’ Snug Harbor opened in 1833 as the first home for retired merchant seamen in the United States. Today, the grounds operate as a massive cultural center and public city park featuring botanical gardens, museums, and multiple historic structures.

The entrance to the South Meadow has a large historic iron anchor resting on the gravel pathway serves as a visual tribute to Snug Harbor’s original history as a 19th-century marine sanctuary for aged sailors. Following the arrow on the sign leads to an expansive open green space used today for major outdoor events, community festivals, and agricultural initiatives. Located nearby, this on-site urban farm produces thousands of pounds of fresh produce each year to support local food security and community agriculture programs.

Cottage D, located along the historic Cottage Row within the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. Built in the late 19th century, the building is designed in the classic French Second Empire architectural style, featuring brick walls, an elegant front porch, and a distinctive mansard roof layered with hexagonal slate shingles. The five homes lined up along Cottage Row were originally constructed to provide residential housing for the essential staff of Sailors’ Snug Harbor, including the institution’s clerks, bakers, farmers, gardeners, and secretaries. The cottage serves as the home for Emma’s Place (The Staten Island Grief and Loss Center for Children and Families). It is a non-profit, non-denominational organization that provides free bereavement counseling, grief education, and support groups for children and families navigating loss.

New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden

Completed: 1999
Landscape Architect: Zou Gongwu, Landscape Architecture
The New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden (NYCSG) is the first authentic classical outdoor scholar’s garden in America. The design represents the traditional private gardens in Suzhou, China during the Ming Dynasty (1368 CE – 1644 CE), which emphasize harmony and balance of the yin and yang through four elements: rocks, water, plantings, and architecture. Many of these elements are believed to cultivate good fortune throughout the garden. As early as the 3rd century BCE, Chinese scholars would retreat to gardens like these to seek refuge from their stressful and demanding jobs in government service. Every floor tile, door, window, and wooden beam was handcrafted by a team of 40 Chinese artists and craftspeople, who spent a year in China creating the garden’s components, and another six months in Staten Island as artisans-in-residence at Snug Harbor to install the pieces. No nails or glue were used in the garden’s construction. The wooden elements are joined together through a sophisticated mortise-and-tenon system common in traditional Chinese workmanship.

This pavilion located inside the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden, showcases classic Ming Dynasty architectural elements, built using authentic materials harvested from Suzhou, China. The pavilion features a sweeping, hip-and-gable Xie Shan Roof covered in traditional gray clay tiles. The dramatic curved corners and upturned eaves are meticulously designed to shield the timber support beams from rain and maximize sunlight during winter. Decorative wooden latticework borders the top of the open pavilion structure, framing views of the surrounding bamboo and pine trees. The garden components were completely fabricated in China and assembled on-site in 1999 by a team of 40 specialized artisans from Suzhou. The surrounding landscape relies on traditional elements like water, rocks, plants, and architecture to mirror classic Chinese ink-and-wash paintings.

This elevated viewing pavilion is known as the Knowing the Fish Pavilion (or the Bridge Pavilion area). This open-sided, Meiwu Design elevated terrace is intentionally positioned high up to give visitors a scenic overlook of the central koi pond below. The top of the pavilion displays Jiuzi latticework, beautiful geometric wooden screens, contrasting against the stark white stucco garden walls. The simple Moyu wooden railings and balustrades provide a resting spot for visitors to lean over and view the natural landscape. Lush green vines blanket the stone foundation, seamlessly integrating the human-made structure with the surrounding botanical elements. The design and naming of viewing areas like this in Chinese gardens often reference the classic Daoist story of the philosophers Zhuangzi and Huizi debating whether one can truly know if fish are happy.

The central koi pond inside the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden is fraed by taihu and lingbi rocks. The dark, jagged stone barriers lining the water are chosen and placed intentionally to evoke wild, rugged mountain ridges in miniature scale. The pond serves as the focal energy center of the garden, deliberately reflecting the surrounding pavilions, bamboo, and pine trees. The irregular stone flagging path forces visitors to look down and slow their walking pace, encouraging a mindful and meditative exploration of the landscape.

The rockery waterfall and grotto located beneath a viewing terrace. This is a dark, cave-like opening built into the stone represents a classic Chinese garden element where water emerges from a mysterious, natural source. The composition creates a deliberate balance between the hard, static energy of the vertical rocks (Yang) and the soft, moving energy of the rushing water (Yin). Contrasting sharply with the organic, rugged stone foundation below is the elegant, light-colored wooden railing featuring a repeating geometric Greek-key style pattern. The surrounding birch and deciduous tree trunks act as a natural frame, encouraging visitors to pause and listen to the sound of the cascading water.

This decorative element is a leak window (known as Louchuang) built into a whitewashed wall. These ornate latticework screens are designed to let light and glimpses of the scenery “leak” through to the other side.The undulating clay-tile ribbons form a complex symmetrical pattern that represents traditional abstract clouds and flowing water. The window acts as a natural picture frame that transforms the garden into living art as visitors move past it. The stark, weathered plaster wall acts as a blank canvas to catch shifting shadows cast by the nearby green foliage throughout the day.

The rockery grotto pathway winds beneath the elevated viewing pavilion The design utilizes a classic technique called Jingyin (borrowed scenery), where dense layers of trees and native bamboo partially obscure the architecture, making the small garden feel expansive and wild. The winding stone walkway deliberately curves around the rock formation, keeping the hidden grotto waterfall out of sight until visitors are directly in front of it. The overhead tree canopy creates a shifting pattern of dappled sunlight across the path, contrasting with the dark, cool shade of the stone structures.

The decorative roof coping and drip tiles atop a white privacy wall. The crescent-shaped grip and drip clay tiles hanging over the edge feature molded relief patterns of traditional Chinese symbols representing longevity and good fortune. Beyond decoration, these specialized tiles channel rainwater away from the white plaster walls below to prevent water damage and staining. Just above the decorative edge, thousands of thin, dark grey tile fragments are stacked tightly on end to form a textured horizontal band.

This striking monolithic stone is an authentic Taihu Rock (scholar’s stone), serving as a centerpiece within the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor. In traditional Chinese gardening, scholar’s stones are judged on four specific criteria: Shou (thinness), Tou (perforated holes), Lou (channels/hollowness), and Zhou (wrinkles/texture). These limestone rocks were originally harvested from the bed of Lake Tai near Suzhou, China, where centuries of water erosion naturally sculpted their dramatic, twisted shapes. Placed vertically as a solo monument, the rock represents a mountain in miniature scale, channeling stable, eternal energy (Yang) amid the changing seasonal plants. The stone is strategically set against a dark wall of dense bamboo, creating a high-contrast visual anchor that catches the midday sun.

This interior view features a traditional covered corridor (known as a Lang) winding through the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor. These covered galleries are designed to snake along the edges of pavilions, protecting visitors from rain and sun while framing changing views of the landscape. The ceiling showcases traditional Chinese mortise-and-tenon construction, featuring dark-stained wood columns, crossbeams, and rafters built entirely without nails. Ornate geometric wooden screens run along the upper edge of the corridor, filtering incoming light and casting complex geometric shadows. The path is paved with narrow gray clay bricks laid vertically on edge in a tight herringbone pattern, a classic technique used to provide traction and texture. At the corridor’s turn, a vertical arrangement of rugged scholar’s stones is placed against a stark white wall to create a miniature cliffside vignette, softly illuminated by an overhead silk-style lantern.

This wide landscape captures the main koi pond and surrounding courtyard walls inside the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor. The high white wall (Cloud Wall or Yunqiang) in the background features a distinctively stepped, undulating top edge. It mimics the rolling movement of clouds or a dragon’s spine, separating the garden sections. The smooth plaster of the white wall acts as a stark, reflective canvas. It captures the silhouettes and shadows of the overhead trees as the sun moves across the sky. The central pond functions as a visual stabilizer. Its dark, reflective surface bounces light up into the shaded pavilions and visually doubles the surrounding trees and rocks. Lush Japanese maples, trailing vines, and weeping willows drape heavily down the pond banks, blending the water seamlessly into the stone barriers.

This gourd-shaped door built into an interior wall In traditional Chinese culture, the bottle gourd shape (Hulu) is a powerful symbol representing longevity, good health, prosperity, and mystery. In ancient Daoist mythology, the gourd was believed to hold a hidden, magical paradise inside it. Incorporating this shape into a doorway playfully hints to visitors that they are stepping into another special world or garden room, signifying a gateway to another world. The dark stone trim framing the smooth curves of the gourd cuts cleanly through the flat white plaster wall. This organic shape stands out beautifully against the rigid, right-angled geometric wood latticework directly above it.

This feature is a large, traditional wooden spirit screen (known as a Pingfeng) positioned right inside an entrance pavilion within the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor. In traditional Chinese architecture, a freestanding screen is a spirit barrier, intentionally placed directly behind a main doorway. According to ancient feng shui beliefs, negative spirits can only move in straight lines; a screen blocks their path and forces beneficial energy (Qi) to curve gracefully around it. Beyond its spiritual purpose, the partition acts as a visual shield. It prevents people outside from looking directly into the private inner courtyard, slowly building anticipation for visitors as they walk around it. The freestanding panel is supported by heavy, intricately carved wooden feet shaped like rolling clouds. The outer borders feature open-face relief carvings of classical patterns that contrast with the smooth center panel.

This view showcases a series of aligned doorways creating a linear perspective view along an outdoor veranda inside the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor. The design sets multiple rectangular door frames directly behind one another, creating an infinity effect. This classic technique mimics a folding screen, making a short corridor feel like an infinite, depth-filled pathway. Above the first doorway hangs a stone plaque inscribed with the Chinese characters “勝賞” (Shèng Shǎng). This translates closely to “Wonderful View” or “Appreciating Scenic Beauty”, serving as a poetic hint for visitors to slow down and enjoy the landscape. The right side of the veranda features tall, multi-panel wooden screen doors. Their dense, geometric openwork filters the incoming daylight and ventilates the adjacent indoor pavilion rooms. The smooth, modern gray stone tile walkway underfoot stands in contrast to the traditional, textured herringbone clay brick paving visible through the inner doorways.

The timber roof framing inside one of the main pavilions utilizes a simplified version of the ancient Chinese dougong structural system, where wooden brackets are precisely stacked to transfer the immense weight of the heavy clay tile roof down to the main columns. True to historic Chinese carpentry methods, these massive interlocking beams, curved rafters, and support struts are held together with mortise-and-tenon joinery without a single metal nail or screw. The exposed rafters are shaped with subtle, sweeping curves that echo the fluid lines found in the natural elements outside, such as rolling clouds and twisting tree branches. The ends of the thick crossbeams are carved into stylized geometric steps, adding a touch of tailored detail to an otherwise functional structural framework.

This traditional hexagonal lantern suspended from the timber roof of a pavilion. One of the main panels features rows of hand-painted Chinese cursive calligraphy, a staple element used in scholar’s gardens to blend literature with physical spaces. The adjacent panels showcase delicate Huaniao (bird-and-flower) paintings, depicting songbirds perched on flowering plum or cherry blossom branches to symbolize spring and renewal. The light-colored silk shades are housed inside an intricate dark wood frame featuring delicate curved side wings and geometric miniature railings. The warm, ambient light filtering through the lantern contrasts beautifully with the stark, repetitive linear patterns of the dark roof slats directly overhead

This scenic viewpoint highlights the Calming Flow Pavilion (often referred to in translation as the Xie Yi Pavilion), sitting at the edge of the central koi pond. The building showcases a classic hip-and-gable roof structure layered with traditional dark grey clay tiles. Over time, wild moss and small grasses have sprouted across the tile seams, giving the roof a seasoned, weathered appearance that seamlessly blends into the overhead tree canopy. The corners of the roof sweep dramatically upward into sharp, curved points designed to echo flying birds. This iconic design helps deflect strong rainwater away from the wooden frames below. The waterfront side features an open facade braced by dark-stained timber columns, allowing panoramic views and cooling air currents from the pond to flow effortlessly into the seating area. Beneath the eaves runs a horizontal band of dense geometric latticework (Jiuzi pattern), which beautifully frames the garden elements outside like a scroll painting. The entire white-stuccoed masonry base rests closely over the water, making the pavilion appear to drift lightly on the surface of the pond.

This intricate stone leak window built into an exterior privacy wall. The geometric lattice design is a classic repeating interlocking pattern derived from the ancient Wan symbol. In traditional Chinese culture and Buddhist art, this motif symbolizes infinite good fortune, eternal prosperity, and ten thousand blessings. The window breaks up the solid white plaster wall, acting as a natural picture frame. It lets visitors glimpse a layered scene on the other side, featuring a dark tree trunk, green leaves, and a weathered Taihu scholar’s rock. As the sun moves throughout the day, the thick stone latticework casts crisp, changing geometric shadow shapes onto the garden paths and walls.

This octagon leak window has a distinctive ice-ray pattern (Binglie wen)

• The Ice-Ray Motif: The chaotic, jagged lattice design replicates the natural appearance of cracking ice on a frozen lake during the early spring thaw. In Chinese garden philosophy, this design carries a poetic symbolic meaning: it represents the end of winter, the arrival of spring, and the rebirth of nature.
• Framed Borrowed Scenery (Jingyin): The inner octagonal cutout is left completely open to serve as a living picture frame. It perfectly captures and highlights a dense cluster of swaying bamboo stalks and green treetops located in the exterior courtyard.
• Octagonal Border: The outer frame forms a sharp eight-sided polygon trimmed with dark stone, which stands out in high contrast against the surrounding white plaster wall.

The famous undulating Dragon Wall (or Cloud Wall, known as Yunqiang) has a wave-like, rolling top of the wall is designed to mimic the sinuous movement of a mythical Chinese dragon soaring through the sky or a series of rolling clouds. The top edge is meticulously capped with thousands of overlapping dark grey clay tiles. The bottom trim consists of rounded decorative drip tiles that feature traditional molded motifs to keep rainwater off the plaster. The area showcases a classic technique of splitting a view into three distinct layers to create depth:

• Foreground: Textured green shrubs and low-lying pines.
• Midground: The crisp white, undulating privacy wall.
• Background: A dense, towering wall of vertical green bamboo stalks that frames the entire scene.

The stone arch bridge features a traditional high, arched “moon bridge” style, commonly used in Chinese gardens to allow small watercraft to pass underneath while creating a beautiful, circular reflection in the water below. The carved granite balustrade railings are made from authentic gray granite, featuring ornamental posts topped with lotus-bud finials and detailed geometric side panels. The bridge connects the main stone pathways directly to a rugged, vertical rockery wall on the right, simulating a narrow crossing over a wild mountain ravine. Tightly framed by low-hanging Japanese maple branches and dense pine boughs, the bridge walkway remains cooled and shaded throughout the hot summer days.

This iconic moon gate (Yue Liang Men) serves as a circular transition portal between courtyards In traditional Chinese architecture, the circular moon gate symbolizes the full moon, representing unity, perfection, and harmony. It serves as a visual framing device, encapsulating a layered composition of a rugged Taihu scholar’s stone pile in the courtyard beyond. Planted tightly along the right border is a dense thicket of green bamboo stalks. Together with pine and plum blossom trees elsewhere in the garden, it represents the “Three Friends of Winter”—symbolizing perseverance and resilience. Leading up to the portal is a decorative gravel walkway inlaid with rounded dark river stones, designed to gently massage the feet and slow down the visitor’s pace.

This view highlights a dramatic rockery landscape along the main koi pond. The jagged stone mass is built using stacked Taihu limestone rocks. In Chinese garden design, these porous stone formations are arranged carefully to mirror a wild, rugged mountain range in miniature scale. Spreading widely across the top of the stones is a delicate Japanese Maple tree. Its layered branches create a soft green canopy that shades the rocks and casts dappled light onto the water surface. In the background, the clean lines of a pavilion’s white walls and dark timber support columns contrast sharply with the raw, irregular shapes of the rocks and foliage.

A traditional metal door knocker and pull (Muan) is mounted on a dark-lacquered wooden door. The thick circular backplate is crafted from patinated brass or bronze. Its smooth, domed center resembles a classic round shield or a stylized lotus leaf. A heavy metal ring hangs loosely from a central loop. It serves a dual purpose: visitors can drop it against the metal plate to knock for entry, or use it as a sturdy handle to pull the heavy timber doors closed. The naturally aged, oxidized golden-green tones of the metal stand out sharply against the smooth, matte black finish of the door panel and the adjacent white stucco wall.

Heritage Farm Office and Concession building (frequently home to the Harbor Eats concession stand), is located adjacent to the Heritage Farm. This quaint, white-painted brick cottage features a symmetrical front facade, a central gabled entryway porch, and a classic circular accent window nestled directly beneath the main roof peak. The field stretching out in front of the building is part of Snug Harbor’s multi-acre urban agricultural site. The farm serves as an educational hub, focusing on local food security, sustainable farming practices, and hosting neighborhood farm stands throughout the growing season.

In late spring and summer, the surrounding beds burst with vibrant red poppies and wild native greenery, creating a stark visual contrast against the clean white masonry.

Connie Gretz Secret Garden

Completed: 2000
Landscape Architects: Bradford Greene and Zion & Breen Associates

Over a half an acre in size, the Connie Gretz Secret Garden is a brick-walled enclosure which boasts three towers and a shrubbery maze, leading to another smaller enclosure at the heart of the garden with greenery, flowers, a mural, and benches. The main tower is two stories high with a spiral staircase, leading to a rooftop that overlooks Snug Harbor’s South Meadow.

The garden was created in memory of Connie Vigneri Gretz (March 14, 1950 – October 25, 1996) by her husband Randy Gretz, inspired by her love of children and the classic children’s story The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It took four years to construct, and was completed by 2000. The Gretz family wanted both children and adults to remember that “although life’s path is never straight, we should look for the magic and joy in each step of the journey. For it is only through life’s journey that we each find the peace and beauty of our own secret garden.”

Hornbeam Allée located within the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden on Staten Island, New York. This European-style architectural feature is created using European Hornbeam trees (Carpinus betulus). The trees are planted in two parallel rows and meticulously trained over a curved metal arched trellis framework. The branches are woven together using an ancient gardening technique called pleaching. Over decades, the overlapping branches fuse together to create a solid, seamless green canopy overhead. The dense summer foliage completely blocks out direct sunlight, casting a cool, rhythmic pattern of shade along the gravel path. This creates a striking “forced perspective” tunnel that draws the eye toward the bright, sunny opening at the far end.

Pollinator Garden

This plot is The Snug Harbor Pollinator Garden, located within the botanical grounds of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden on Staten Island, New York. A bronze plaque positioned at the front of the bed reads: “The Snug Harbor Pollinator Garden. Planted on April 27, 2025 in honor of our mother and grandmother…” The bed is purposefully designed with a selection of native and ornamental flowering plants specifically chosen to provide essential nectar and pollen sources for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other local pollinators.

Featured Flora

Healing Garden

Completed: 2008
Landscape Architects: Michael Browne and Gabriella Kellor
Symbols of life and renewal are prevalent throughout the Healing Garden, which commemorates the 274 Staten Isianders who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. The garden was planned and built in collaboration with the local community and firefighters of Staten Island’s Rescue 5 in order to provide survivors and families with a place to reflect and find solace. A stone “Wall of Remembrance” features four cast-iron faces sculpted in an ancient Roman grotesque style, where water flows from each of them into a reflecting pool and along cobblestone culverts lining the walkways. Can you find the four faces? What do you think they represent? The Healing Garden’s winding paths lead you through a mix of hardwood, canopy, and understory trees, such as cherry, Norway maple, honey locust, willow, horse chestnut, sassafras, silver maple, and red oak. The mix of foliage is sublime in spring, summer, and especially autumn. Located on one acre of forested hillside, the woodland garden overlooks 20 acres of state-mapped wetlands.

The Victorian Snug Harbor Gazebo (often historically categorized as a bandstand), built in 1886 and located on the expansive south lawn of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden. The structure is an extraordinary example of highly stylized Late Victorian architecture, blending stick-style details with a distinct, East Asian-influenced tiered roof profile. It features beautifully turned, spiral-grooved support columns, open geometric panels framing the central structural core, and decorative open latticework panels sitting directly beneath the eaves. The complex roof structure features an integrated upper lantern tower capped with a decorative iron finial, entirely layered in beautifully weathered hexagonal slate shingles. Historical documentation from the Library of Congress notes its function as a bandstand or music kiosk, serving as an outdoor entertainment pavilion for retired merchant sailors living at the harbor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This view shows the rear facades of the historic monumental buildings comprising Temple Row and adjacent structures. The tan brick building on the right with the prominent black iron fire escapes is Building P, which historically served as the institution’s laundry building and hospital kitchen. Today, it houses administrative spaces and classrooms for the Staten Island Children’s Museum. The grand, multi-story buildings visible in the background form part of the monumental Greek Revival and Italianate front row facing the Kill Van Kull. They feature elegant pedimented gables, arched window openings, and decorative stone cornices typical of mid-to-late 19th-century architecture. Peeking out on the far left background is the distinctive copper dome of the Veteran’s Memorial Hall (originally the Snug Harbor Chapel), built in 1856.

The historic Boiler House (Building S) features prominent brick smokestack. Constructed in the late 19th century, this building served as the central powerhouse and boiler facility for the sprawling 83-acre maritime retirement campus. It generated steam power and heat for the dozens of adjacent dormitories, workshops, and facilities. The massive, free-standing brick chimney towering on the left side of the structure was designed to safely vent exhaust from the heavy coal-burning boilers housed inside. The two-story masonry building showcases classic industrial Victorian design, featuring an architectural fanlight window over the central arched entryway, a lunette accent window at the roof peak, and symmetrical brick corbelling beneath the eaves.

Staten Island Museum

Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor, located in Building A Built in 1879, this structure originally served as a grand dormitory building designed to house retired merchant sailors (referred to as “inmates” or “captains” at the time) living at Sailors’ Snug Harbor. The building showcases classical Neo-Classical and Greek Revival architectural elements, highlighted by a large triangular pediment at the roofline, heavy stone cornices, and symmetrical rows of tall sash windows accented by decorative lintels. Following a massive $24.4 million historical restoration and environmental modernization project, the landmark building officially reopened to the public in 2015 as the flagship home of the Staten Island Museum.

The Museum Inside

• The “Mini-Smithsonian”: It stands as New York City’s only remaining general collection museum under one roof, curating massive archives that bridge Fine Art, Natural Sciences, and Regional History.
• Notable Exhibits: Inside the climate-controlled galleries, visitors can explore famous permanent displays including Remember the Mastodon (showcasing local ice-age biodiversity) and From Farm to City (charting the historical transformation of Staten Island).

The Staten Island Museum was founded in 1881 by a group of civic-minded naturalists. After D. Wallace MacDonald donated his parents’ collection of antiquities, in 1912, the Museum began collecting more works of art, including ancient Egyptian and Greek objects. Since then, the collection has been enriched by art of different eras from all over the world. The Treasure Box gallery displays works from five continents: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Countries represented include China, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, and the United States. The oldest piece is an Egyptian funerary statuette of a striding man, dating from the second millennium BCE. Look for an ancient Roman portrait, a sculpture of the Hindu god Ganesh, a dragon robe from China, a Bwoom mask from the Congo, and beaded moccasins made by Lakota Sioux women. Because these objects from far-flung places are gathered here, you can see that people everywhere share concerns regarding religion, conflict, and burial practices, among other issues. While there is a lot for you to consider, the most important thing is to delight your eyes and your mind.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT: The Staten Island Museum is located within Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. The Lenape and their ancestors lived throughout the Island, until European settlers forced them out of the region. Lenape (Delaware) communities were displaced and may now be found throughout the United States and in Canada. We honor the significance of this land and wish to pay our respect to the Lenape communities, their Elders past and present, and future generations. We at the museum hope to evolve from stewards to partners in the care of this land and to deepen our relationships with the Lenape people moving forward.

THE LENAPE ON STATEN ISLAND

Staten Island is located in the center of Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. Lenapehoking spans parts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Until European settlers forcibly displaced the Lenape, they moved seasonally throughout the region, settling on Staten Island to hunt, fish, and harvest oysters. By the mid-1700s the Lenape had moved westward.

There are no known records of the tribal or national names used by the people of Lenapehoking before contact with the Europeans. Today, tribes in the United States and Canada identify as Munsee, Unami, Lenape, and Delaware. Scholars have dated these names to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Munsee and Unami refer to languages spoken by indigenous peoples North and South of the Raritan River in New Jersey. The name Lenape is an Unami word meaning “common man” or “ordinary people.” Delaware is a name that European colonists gave to the indigenous people who lived along the Delaware River.

Much of the Lenape oral tradition was lost or changed as they were forced North and West by European settlers and later the U.S. government. Western histories of the Lenape people rely heavily on archeological evidence to fill in gaps of understanding about the prehistoric and historic traditions of the Lenape.

The Staten Island Museum has a large collection of Lenape artifacts including both objects found on the surface of the ground, and those removed during archeological excavations. One type of artifact, a projectile point, is called a Rossville point after the neighborhood of Rossville, Staten Island where the type was first unearthed.

Today, many of the descendants of the Lenape are living in Oklahoma and Wisconsin and belong to one of three federally recognized tribes. Others are members of tribes in Ontario, Canada. Smaller groups of Lenape still live in New England and the mid-Atlantic, with state-level recognition or as self-recognized tribes. Some descendants of the Lenape never left their native lands, but do not officially belong to a tribe.

Mastodon life-sized replica, a centerpiece of the permanent exhibition titled “Remember the Mastodon.” This accurate, touchable reconstruction depicts an American Mastodon (Mammut americanum), an ancient proboscidean species that once roamed North America during the Pleistocene epoch. The display is framed by a sweeping landscape mural painted by renowned natural history artist Charles Knight, depicting the marshy woodlands of New York as they looked over 10,000 years ago. The exhibition celebrates the extraordinary discovery of authentic Mastodon molar fossils unearthed right on Staten Island during excavations in the early 20th century, proving that these massive Ice Age beasts once inhabited the exact land where the museum stands today.

A Nymphaeum – Baths of the Villa
Aldobrondini at Rome Opus Civ
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (Dutch, 1836-1912)
Oil on wood, 1875
Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema settled in London, England in 1870. A classical-subject painter, he is best-known for paintings that show the decadence of the Roman Empire with figures set in marbled interiors or against a backdrop of the blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. This painting, still in its original frame, was part of a large 1977 donation of furniture, paintings, silver, china, glass, decorative arts, and prints from Mrs. Elliot Kamen in memory of her father, Bernard Armour. The painting was exhibited in Liverpool in 1875 and in Antwerp in 1876.

The Archangel Raphael with Tobias
Attributed to Michele Tosini, called
di Ridolfo (1503-1577)
Florence, Italy, ca. 1560-70
Oil on wood panel

Tobias, sent away by his blind father to redeem a debt, unknowingly engages the archangel Raphael as guide. Tobias catches a powerful fish as he crosses the Tigris River, later using its remains to cure his father’s blindness. The figures’ elongated proportions reflect the late-Renaissance Mannerist style.

Collector Highlights
THE EDITH AND ALFRED SUSSKIND PORCELAIN COLLECTION

Decorative arts connoisseur Edith Susskind (1921-2014) was a native Staten Islander, successful business owner, and generous supporter of local education and culture. In addition to running her extraordinary gift shop and performing continuous charitable work, Edith enjoyed a love of beautiful objects. She started collecting porcelain and fine antiques with her husband Alfred (1910-1996) in the 1940’s. She studied porcelain forms, styles, and history, and gave educational lectures to fellow decorative art lovers.
Staten Islanders remember Edith Susskind as a larger-than-life personality, a “Gift Specialist,” a boa-wearing businesswoman,
knowledgeable collector, and benefactor for education and the arts.

In Edith’s own words: “It’s an object’s design, material, shape, craftsmanship, color, glaze and “feel” that stamp it for what it is. These are the characteristics that hold the real secret of when and where and by whom it was made.”

West Gatehouse (also known as the Western Gatehouse), is located on the western edge of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden campus. Built around 1880, this gatehouse originally served as the formal carriage entrance and security checkpoint for vehicles entering the Sailors’ Snug Harbor property along what is now Snug Harbor Road. The building exhibits classic High Victorian Gothic industrial architecture. It features vibrant orange-red brickwork paired with light grey granite corner quoins, arched window bays, a grand central archway, and an original slate shingle roof topped with a decorative iron ridge cresting. Mirroring a similar gatehouse located on the eastern boundary (Tysen Street), the structure includes minor interior rooms that historically provided workspace and shelter for the estate’s gatekeepers and grounds keepers.