The chapel was built in 1856, refurbished in 1873, and restored only recently into Veterans Memorial Hall. The fence, the Gatehouse, the former Chapel, and the Front Five. The main fa ade is sheathed in marble quarried by inmates at Sing Sing prison. The monumental Ionic order of the fa ade carries a full entablature and shadow pediment, and was designed after the Little Temple of Ilyssus near Athens. Built as dormitories to house the Snugs each has a three-bay fa ade dominated by a broad, shallow pediment.
Central bays form the entrances with small Ionic porches.
Buildings A and E were built by Samuel Thomson in 1879 and 1880 as the final phase of Lafever s design for the central complex. A small Italianate brick building with round-arched windows and an added tower. The former Chapel is now an intimate music hall. The restoration of the surviving structures at Snug Harbor Cultural Center has been in fits and starts over the 30 years the city has owned it. A visitor here encounters boarded up windows, peeling paint, scaffolding, corridors leading nowhere.