The following is the entry for Sailor’s Snug Harbor from 
The Graveyard Shift: A Family Historian’s Guide to New York City Cemeteries, 
by Carolee Inskeep. 

Category: Institutional, Seamen 

Years of Use: 1834 to 1976 

Location: Prospect Avenue and Caldera Place, Livingston, Staten Island. 

History: Sailor’s Snug Harbor was created in 1801 by the will of Captain 
Robert Richard Randall as a "home for retired, native-born sailors who 
served at least five years aboard a vessel flying the American flag." 
The Staten Island site opened in 1833 with twenty sailors. It later housed as
many as 1,000 retirees at a time. In 1976, Sailor’s Snug Harbor closed its 
Staten Island facility, sold the property to the City of New York, and 
reopened its doors in North Carolina. It retained ownership of the cemetery, 
and the older gravestones were put into storage. 

The Snug Harbor Cultural Center currently occupies the remaining property. 
It is home to the Staten Island Botanical Garden, the Staten Island 
Children’s Museum, and independent arts organizations. 

Mailing Address:
Sailor’s Snug Harbor
P.O. Box 150
Sealevel, North Carolina, 28577-0150
(252) 225-4411 

Records: Sailor’s Snug Harbor maintains the cemetery records and will 
search them upon request. Researchers should also check the 
Staten Island RootsWeb page on the Internet to see if this cemetery 
has been added to its cemetery database. 

Resources: Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island (FACSI) has a 
blueprint of the cemetery. The graves are numbered; the blueprint shows 
the location of the number. FACSI can be reached at 140 Tysen Street, 
Staten Island, NY 10301-1120. 

Lane, Doris. "By Will of a Sea Captain: Sailor’s Snug Harbor Cemetery," 
The FACSI Newsletter, vol. 15, issue 3 (Fall 1998). (history of cemetery; 
profile of David Jeremiah Hubbard) 

For history on the Sailor's Snug Harbor Home

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