demolished; the ornate white-marble Randall Memorial Church was torn down in 1952. With the arrival of the Social Security system in the 1930s, demand for accommodation for old sailors declined; by the mid-1950s, fewer than 200 residents remained. Landmark designations and sale In the 1960s, the institution's trustees proposed to redevelop the site with high-rise buildings; the then-new New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission stepped forward to save the remaining buildings, designating them landmark structures. A series of legal battles ensued, but the validity of landmark designation was ultimately upheld in 1968. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and the grounds was declared a National Historic Landmark district in 1976. The trustees sold the Staten Island site to the New York City government in two separate transactions in 1972 and 1974, totaling $9.7 million. However, the city incurred a budget deficit as a result of the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis, leaving the government unable to perform even minor maintenance. The trustees had also been losing about $300,000 a year from the Staten Island site, and they found that it was unprofitable to keep operating the Staten Island facility. In June 1976, the trustees moved the institution to Sea Level, North Carolina. Two sailors on the Staten Island property held out until September 1976. The Trustees of the Sailors' Snug Harbor in the City of New York continues to use funds from the endowment to help mariners all over the country. The Sailors' Snug Harbor Archives are preserved at the Stephen B. Luce Library at the State University of New York's Maritime College in the Bronx. Cultural center The Snug Harbor Cultural Center and the Staten Island Botanical Garden were established in 1975. The former would operate the buildings, while the latter would maintain the gardens on the grounds. On September 12, 1976, the Snug Harbor Cultural Center was opened to the public. In 2008, the Cultural Center and the Staten Island Botanical Garden merged to become the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden. Architecture The five interlocking Greek Revival buildings at Snug Harbor are located on the northern end of the grounds, near Richmond Terrace, and are known as buildings A through E from west to east. The five buildings were designed by Minard Lafever and Richard Smyth, and constructed from 1831 to 1880. Building C was an administration building