Staten Island

This picture is at Mount Loretto, which was founded as Catholic orphanage on Staten Island in the late 19th century. It is still operating today, but it is not really an orphanage anymore; it is more of a social service agency. They recently built a CYO on its grounds and it has become a community center, with inside basketball courts and meeting rooms.

The church in the picture is still standing, but the buildings on either side are gone. In the early 1970's the exterior of the church was used in a scene from the famous movie The Godfather. There was a fire at the church shortly after the filming; only the facade was still standing. The church was rebuilt and was in operation again a few years later.

Mount Loretto is located about a mile from the Tottenville Library.

For more information, check out these two websites:

http://mountloretto.org/document/18621

and:

http://www.miv-mountloretto.org/home.html

Driving along Staten Island’s North Shore from St. George to Mariner’s Harbor one passes a string of marine industries: tug boat companies, dredging companies, marine electric companies, dry docks… ending at the sprawling Howland Hook container ship terminal. The marine industry has thrived along the shore of the Kill Van Kull since the days of sail. At points along the drive views of it’s early history can still be seen in the ruins of old wooden piers dry docks.

Many of the current marine businesses are hidden behind high walls and fences, visible only through their driveways. Driving by, one can occasionally catch a glimpse of a large propeller sitting in a yard or a ferryboat in dry dock but most of the work of the modern marine industries is hidden from public view. A new book seeks to change that. Readers can get a comprehensive overview of the past and present operations of New York Harbor’s oldest dry dock in Caddell Dry Dock: 100 Years Harborside.
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Panorama of Richmond, Staten Island, N.Y. [view from high ground with St. Andrew's Church] (From NYPL Digital Gallery)

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church recently celebrated its 300th anniversary. My mother's family lived nearby when she was young. They later moved, but my grandmother was buried from St. Andrew's, in 1955, I think.

Richmond was the Staten Island County seat until it was later moved to St. George, near the ferry. Richmond is more or less the geographical center of Staten Island.

This post is a revised and updated version of an article that originally appeared in The Staten Island Historian, Winter-Spring 2002, Volume 19, New Series 2 published by the Staten Island Historical Society.

The Port Richmond Branch of The New York Public Library is rich with stories. It stands at 75 Bennett Street on the North Shore of Staten Island, N.Y., two blocks from the Kill Van Kull. A gift from the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, the historic red brick building faces Veterans’ Park and P.S. 20 in the Port Richmond neighborhood. The library’s history and its service to the people of Port Richmond mirror the rapidly changing community life of Staten Island.

First Attempts

The Port Richmond library was built in an area that had only received sporadic library service throughout the 19th century. Staten Island interest in a public library began as early as 1833 when the Franklin Society established a social library in Factoryville (now West New Brighton). A variety of small private library collections and literary associations sprang up on the North Shore throughout the century: The Young Men’s Free Reading Room, The Castleton Free Circulating Library (in the Unitarian Church of New Brighton), and the Young People’s Literary Association of Tompkinsville. These groups tried, with only partial success, to fill the need for library service.  read more »

From the flier for an upcoming program on March 19, 2009 at 4:00PM at the Tottenville Branch Library:

A Celebration of the History of Tottenville

The Tottenville Historical Society and the Tottenville Branch Library invite you to celebrate the arrival of the new book, Tottenville: The Town the Oyster Built by Barnett Shepherd. “Scrupulously researched but lively vivid…” writes Christopher Gray of the New York Times. And Brian J. Laline, Editor, Staten Island Advance adds “Tottenville, Staten Island. A place of rich history, historical significance–and your last stop before leaving the shores of the State of New York…Travel with him around this southernmost town in New York State…It’s truly a unique story of a tiny slice of America.”

The book is published by the Tottenville Historical Society and the Preservation League of Staten Island.

If you can't come to the program and are interested in the book, you can contact the Tottenville Historical Society at www.tottenvillehistory.com or at PO Box 70185, Staten Island, NY 10307-0185

It is hard to believe that we are almost half way through the 2008-09 book discussion at the Tottenville Branch. Tonight we will be discussing All My Sons by Arthur Miller. It is the first time in a long time that we have read a play, so it will be interesting to see how the group reacts. In some ways the play seems to me to be dated, although it is about an issue, manufacturing shoddy military machinery and war profiteering in the U.S. during World War II, a subject that doesn’t seem to be talked or written about much. (Was it a big problem?) I don’t know how the group will react.

They have been pretty pleased with the selections so far: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.

The most popular title was The Secret Life of Bees with The Memory Keeper’s Daughter a close second. Our next book is Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. This was requested by a number of members of the group.

We’ve been averaging 13.5 people per session, which is a really high number for Tottenville. They are really into it!

Main Street, Tottenville, Staten Island, N.Y. [close view of shops and ad sign for Horton's Ice Cream, people in front of store under awning, old car in street]

Main Street is about a block away fromt the Tottenville Branch Library. The street looks very different today!

Image and Caption From NYPL Digital Gallery

This is a great place, and it is within walking distance of the ferry. I went to movies here as a kid, and it is great to go to it again and see it in good shape! It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but the inside is fabulous! They are putting on a number of different kinds of shows now, including concerts and the occasional play. And they have a working Wurlitzer organ that they play before most performances. For more info on the theater, go to their website:

http://www.stgeorgetheatre.com

And it is right across the street from the St. George Library Center.
 
 
 
 
 

More images after the jump...  read more »

I found these pictures at www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com

The original Bethel Church in Tottenville burned down in 1886 and was re-built and dedicated the next year. There is a history of the church in Tottenville In Retrospect by Benjamin Franklin Joline, which is at the Tottenville Branch. When the church moved to its present location, pictured above, some members felt it was too far away from the heart of Tottenville, and they broke away to start another Methodist church closer to the heart of town.

The church pictured above is near Amboy Road and Page Avenue, one of the entrances to the town of Tottenville, about 3/4 of a mile away from the Tottenville branch

So far, Staten Island trolley tours are filling up
by Staten Island Advance Thursday July 10, 2008, 12:38 PM

Hilton Flores/Staten Island Advance
Tourists and Staten Islanders alike took time yesterday to take the 55-minute tour of the borough, which is free this week.

On a day when the haze turned Manhattan's famous skyline into so many ghostly, jagged silhouettes -- obviating the reason so many tourists hop the ferry to Staten Island before making their typical, quickie U-turn -- a red trolley idling in the downstairs parking lot yesterday beckoned the uninitiated to venture deeper into New York City's best-kept secret.  read more »

Even though I have read about this flag, I don’t recall ever seeing this being flown anyplace on Staten Island. I think some people think the big hill in the background is the garbage dump. And seagulls? Not the most beautiful or noble bird in the world! Somewhat of a scavenger, I believe. Maybe it is just as well it isn’t flown anyplace!  read more »

If you like the "Satellite View" feature in Google Maps then you should enjoy these aerial photographs of New York City. In 1924 Arthur Tuttle flew over the city snapping pictures of every building and landmark there was. His images of NYC rooftops clearly show the outline of all the buildings. The atlas containing his photos is called:

Sectional aerial maps of the City of New York / [photographed and assembled under the direction of the chief engineer, July 1st, 1924].

Here are a couple of samples cropped from larger images:

The Staten Island Ferry Terminal (from image 21A)
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Staten Island's Halloran General Hospital, home of crafty recovering soldiers during World War II. (Image from NYPL Digital Gallery).

A few weeks ago at a Handmade Then and Now class (I'll teach this class next on July 16th at 2:15pm), I met a number of creative people, including a knitter named Maxine Levinson. Maxine works at the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department of the Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai, where she teaches young patients and their families how to knit. I learned from Maxine how knitting, like other creative arts therapies, can reduce anxieties and provide a sense of security during sometimes long and stressful hospital stays. Maxine told me, "I am very fortunate to be able to share my love of crafts in such a unique way."  read more »

Our cast takes a bow at Staten Island OutLOUD’s annual performance of “Moby Dick” at historic Fort Wadsworth.

What is Staten Island OutLOUD?
Staten Island OutLOUD is a grass-roots dialogue and performance project. Several times a month, we present free gatherings in community settings throughout Staten Island. We gather to read aloud to one another from a variety of world classics and other compelling literature. There’s nothing to buy, nothing to prepare. Just come with an open mind; we’ll lend you copies of the featured literature. Anyone who wants to read aloud is welcome to do so; those who’d prefer not to, can just sit back and enjoy being read to. We draw a diverse, intergenerational audience. In fact, we bring together many people who might otherwise never have a chance to meet. We share ideas about what we’re just read, and enjoy hearing a variety of viewpoints. Most of our events are intimate, participatory readings, but several times a year we present large staged events with music. All our events are free.  read more »

There's a great selection of Staten Island maps and Atlases in the NYPL Digital Gallery. Using the "Pan and Zoom" feature the maps can be enlarged to the point where you can read street names and even the names of residents of individual houses. "Pan and Zoom" is not available on all maps, however.

Here are some of the maps and atlases available:

Atlas of Staten Island, Richmond County, New York, from official records and surveys; compiled and drawn by F. W. Beers.
Published in 1874, this Atlas contains 35 maps of neighborhoods on Staten Island including property lines, names of property owners, and outlines of individual buildings.

Borough of Richmond, Topographical Survey. (1906-1913)  read more »

Yesterday…

…and today!

OK, so this is the thing about which just about all Staten Islanders, no matter what their background or politics, have over the years been least proud. The Fresh Kills Landfill (or as we used to call it, “the dump,”) closed on March 22, 2001, certainly in part as a reward from then mayor Rudy Giuliani to Staten Island for its political support.

The dump opened up in 1948 and was supposed to be temporary. It grew to be by most accounts the largest garbage dump in the world.

I had the pleasure(?!) of growing up about two blocks away from one section of the dump. I can remember before it was there. It was a salt marsh that today we would call wetlands. There was a guy whose nickname was “Yonk” and his family owned horses and a barn, and he used to ride a wagon pulled by horses (I swear this is true!) and harvested the hay to feed his horses. This was in the late 1950s or early 1960s. When they started filling in the area with garbage, some were glad because they felt it would kill the horrible infestations of mosquitos we used to get during the summer. However, the mosquitos didn’t go away, and we had the horrible stench to go along with the skeeters. It was good for weather forcasting, though, as right before it rained it REALLY stunk!

Once they covered the garbage with a dirt layer, however, it became somewhat of an unofficial recreation area. Shallow pools of water quickly froze in the winter and we went ice skating there. Some guys went hunting, sometimes getting pheasants but more likely killing rats and sea gulls. Some went fishing, and some went swimming in the Fresh Kills creek. There was a dock with boats there that pre-dated the dump.

I never ate any fish or animals from the dump, (or went swimming there) but I did eat some vegetables that grew up there. They were pretty good (great fertilizer, I guess) but heaven only knows what kind of chemicals were in them. Well, no apparent effects up to this point!

Today, the West Shore Expressway (Route 440) cuts right through the dump. (It wasnt’t there when I was a kid.) It is amazing how quickly nature took over after the dump closed, along with some human help, to make it look like it does in the second picture above. It is actually quite pretty now. Really! The whole thing is going to be turned into parks. Hope it isn’t the usual city project and takes years and years. I’d like to go up there again before I throw off this mortal coil!

Spring has sprung, and for many of us that means the beginning of the baseball season. A few years ago, a ballpark, named Richmond County Ballpark at St. George, was built right next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. It is the home of the Staten Island Yankees, a Class A minor league team of the New York Yankees. They play a short season (this year from June 17 to September 6). Prices for tickets are cheap; in past years they have been in the $10 range for the best seats. Food prices are cheaper than the major leagues, but not as inexpensive as one might hope, at least in my opinion. Most of the players are right out of high school or college, and for most this is their first professional baseball experience. They play with a lot of enthusiasm and hope.

Current NY Yankees Chien-Ming Wang, Melky Cabrera, and Shelly Duncan all played here before moving on in their baseball careers.

It is a great place to take in a game on a hot summer night, getting a nice breeze from the water. A lot of people rave about the view of the Manhattan skyline, but I think my favorite non-baseball thing is watching all the the ships passing by. It reminds me that we live on an island, which in the day-to-day running around many of us tend to forget. At least I do.

Check it out this summer if you get a chance! Even if you aren't a big baseball fan, I think you will still enjoy it!

The St. George Library branch is right up the street and is open till 8:00PM Monday thru Thursday.

This bridge changed everything on Staten Island, changing it from a rural area of small towns and open spaces and farms (which I recall) to one of suburbia. I remember going to Fort Wadsworth with my family in the early 1960s to check the progress of the building of the bridge. The fort is now open to the public, and it is managed by the National Park Service and is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Staten Island was a Tory area during the American Revolution. However, I read an account that said Americans were standing in the area of the picture above when British ships left New York after losing the revolution. Apparently the British fired a shot at the new citizens of America as they were yellling insults at the departing soldiers and sailors of their former country.

Two books about the bridge that are available for borrowing are The Bridge by Gay Talese and Spanning the Narrows by Brian Merlis.

The South Beach branch is close by this scene.

Caption-After School at Kreischerville: children lined up at librarian’s table behind bookwagon.
No date given.

Kreischerville is the next town north of Tottenville, but today it is called Charleston. Kreischerville was named after the owner of a brickyard, an industry that once thrived here as the clay-type soil here was good for making bricks. Some of the excavations were filled in by water and today are called Clay Pit Ponds. Mr. Kreischer’s mansion is still here. It was converted into a restaurant a few years ago, but it is now closed. I believe the brickyards were closed in the 1920s or 1930s.

Picture from NYPL Digital Gallery

This is an an email I received from the President fo the Tottenville Historical Society:

“I received a note today from long-time Tottenville resident Gordon Ekstrand, who is also Past Post Commander of the local American Legion, Beauvais-Hudson Post No. 126. He writes:

“I have been working since November 2006 to have the Borough Commissioner of Parks Thomas Paulo erect a new sign at the Pavilion next to Conference House Park . I called his office and was told the sign is up. I walked down to the pavilion and it’s really up above the steps. Also Sen. Lanza’s office pushed them, too. The brass $300.00 plaque reads: Dedicated to Almer G. Russell

Machine Gun Battalion 321

World War I

Born 1891 ~ Died 1918

Our Beauvais-Hudson Post No. 126 on Memorial Day and Veterans Day visits 7 locations to have a service, and the pavilion is one of the stops we make and place a wreath in the water for sailors lost at sea.”

FYI: The Pavilion was constructed in the 1930s to honor local resident Almer Russell who was killed in action in France . The neglected structure had become unsafe and was razed in 1963. Many individuals and organizations petitioned the city for 30+ years to rebuild it. Finally, in 2002, the Pavilion was reopened, but with virtually no mention of Almer Russell.

So, if you are in the area, take a walk to the Pavilion in Conference House Park and see the new brass plaque mounted in memory of a fallen soldier. And say “thank you” to Almer, and also to Gordon and his Legion comrades for their work and especially for their service. We should never forget.”

When I was a boy my family occasionally drove here all the way from Travis, Staten Island to take in the cool breezes coming off of Raritan Bay. I was very happy when they re-built it. It is in the Conference House Park, which is about a mile from the Tottenville Branch.