The corner-stone of the Asylum was laid with appropriate exercises October 21, 1831, and on the first day of August, 1833, the building was formally opened for the reception of the thirty sailors approved by a committee appointed for that purpose. The main building consists of a central, 65 by 100, feet, three stories above the basement, and of two wings 51 by 100 feet each, two and a half stories high, the parts being connected with corridors 40 feet long by 16 wide, giving a total frontage of 247 feet. The building stands on a graceful eminence; its front is of marble, with a majestic portico ornamented with eight massive Ionic columns, presenting a palatial aspect as seen from the bay. In the rear of the main edifice is a three-story brick, 80 feet square, erected in 1854, in the basement of which are the Steward's office and the great kitchen of the establishment, furnished with an ample supply of steam-kettles. The first floor of this building contains the dining-rooms, and the other floors contain dormitories, which are mostly large, square rooms, containing four beds each. This building is connected with the main edifice by a covered passage-way. A little to the right of this stands the chapel, a fine brick, with seating for several hundred persons, and adjoining stands a well-arranged parsonage for the use of the chaplain. Further back stand the wash-house and the bake-house, each two stories, of brick, and well arranged. Still further to the rear stands the hospital, erected twenty years ago. It is a well-built three-story brick, with heavy granite trimmings, and contains space for seventy-five beds. Sixty-one persons are now in the hospital, some of whom have been under treatment thirty years. Our attention was called to grandfather Morris, a colored sailor, one hundred and six years old, who has been in the "Harbor" over a quarter of a century. We hoped to get some reminiscences of the Institution from him, but his mind was too much absorbed in better things. He remembers George Whitefield and other eminent, men of the good lang syne. He can only talk of Jesus and Heaven. He expects to make but one more short voyage, and reach in due time the haven where there are no shipwrecks or misfortunes, and where people are all of a color. We were next taken to Captain Webster, in another ward, who thinks himself one hundred and eight years old, but whom the steward informed us was ninety-six. He is buoyant and cheerful, full of conversation and humor, and speaks of a "good hope" also for the life to come.

The "Harbor" contains at this writing four hundred inmates besides the officers and help. Liberty is granted the inmates to visit friends, and go to the city or elsewhere as they may reasonably desire. The main building contains a reading-room furnished with files of papers and periodicals; also a library of about a thousand volumes, containing many excellent and solid works which exhibit the wear of much reading. An indispensable prerequisite to admission is that the applicant has sailed five years under the American flag. This, coupled with disease and poverty, formerly proved sufficient, but the late war has so multiplied the number of crippled seaman, that the trustees have been compelled to be more cautious in their admissions. Most of the inmates live to advanced years. Their home is well conducted, and the finest of the kind in the world. The buildings are all that could be desired, and the grounds, which are richly cultivated and thickly set with fruit and shade-trees, are as charming as nature and art could well make them. About twenty-three acres, containing the buildings and gardens, are enclosed by a massive but handsome iron fence, which cost over eighty thousand dollars. The iron was cast in England, and the fence rests upon a deep and solid foundation, with capped posts of the best granite. Much of the farm is still covered with heavy timber. In the front yard, at a convenient distance from the front entrance, stands a white marble monument, erected by the trustees August 21, 1834, to the memory of the founder of the Institution, whose remains were then removed from their first resting-place.

The affairs of the society are managed by the ex-officio trustees named in the will, who annually elect their own officers. The salaried officers are the governor and his assistant, the treasurer, agent, resident chaplain, and physician. These employ such other help as is needed, with consent of the trustees. The officers are kindly disposed, too indulgent to the inmates if anything, and affable to visitors. The Institution is open to visitors every day of the week except the Sabbath, and every unoccupied sailor on the premises is ready with characteristic politeness to escort them through the buildings and grounds. The basement of the main edifice is mostly devoted to workshops. Here all who are able carry on the basket or mat making with their own capital, the fruit of which furnishes means for travel and for other private uses. Nearly all earn something.

The chaplain was absent when we visited the Harbor, but his praise was in the mouths of many of the inmates. He holds service twice each Sabbath, and offers public prayers twice each day. The By-Laws, which are an excellent code, make it the duty of each inmate to attend all the religious services unless excused by the governor, for sickness or other sufficient cause, yet we were informed that less than half ordinarily attended the Sabbath services. A stricter discipline would be a decided improvement. Eighty or ninety of the inmates profess religion, some of whom attend and take part in the Fulton-street prayer-meeting occasionally. The former chaplain was shot on the grounds by one of the old seamen, who afterwards shot himself. The man is now believed to have been guilty of a previous murder, and to have become partially insane from a sense of guilt and an apprehension that God would not pardon him.