New York City Farm Colony-Seaview Hospital Historic District

The New York City Farm Colony was built on the site of the former Richmond County Poor Farm in 1902. Established to house and aid able-bodied poor, the institution was predicated on the idea of the exchange of labor for shelter and food, although work was not compulsory. The first dormitories opened in 1904. Although three architects were involved – Raymond F. Almirall, Frank H. Quimby, and William Flanagan – their designs share the vocabulary of the so-called Dutch Colonial Revival style. The use of brick and field-stone, gambrel roofs, and classical porticos evoke the Colony's history as a farming community.

In 1915, the New York City Farm Colony was merged with Seaview Hospital, which had been constructed on adjacent land. When it opened in 1914, it was the largest institution in the world dedicated to the cure of tuberculosis. Red tile roofs, stuccoed walls, and tile and mosaic decoration recall Spanish Mission architecture, but the architect Raymond F. Almiral believed his work to be modern, without a historic or geographic style. The eight freestanding pavilions (four survive) provided maximal light and elevated views of land and sea, as contemporary medical theory stressed the importance of pleasant surroundings and fresh air for tubercular patients. The detailing on these pavilions includes inset tiling depicting nurses, doctors, seashells and red crosses set in a polychrome band that runs the length of the building.

After the discovery of a cure for tuberculosis in the 1950s, the last patient left in 1961 and Seaview was turned over to various community service offices. Many buildings on the site have deteriorated. ©2014