The Stapleton Projects Project - Part Five

Time has passed far too quickly, and I've done nothing but accumulate stacks and stacks of electronic pictures and done nothing with them. So here goes, I'm going to try to get a post or two up each week and jumpstart this whole thing.

Broad Street between Tompkins Avenue and Cedar Street

 Here's another example of the typical Broad Street mix of commercial and residential units. So there's a shoe repair shop, a fish market, billiards, a deli, and a beauty parlor. #15 (B) is listed on the 1917 map as the Central Hotel. I can't tell if it's still a hotel or just an apartment building in the photo above, but either ways, it's a pretty large residence for Stapleton.

Broad Street between Canal and Wright

This was never a block I went down much. There was really no reason too. There was an animal hospital but we had our own vet somewhere in Rosebank. Just no reason at all.

What I like about the pictures (ca. 1940), are how they show the block alive. My favorite is Lot 23 with both car and horse drawn wagon. Though already decades old, the automobile hasn't displaced every old fashioned transport.

Today, many of several of these buildings are gone. D is the parking lot for the old Virginia Funeral Home. J is an open lot. The old PS 14 is long gone. Where it once towered (keep you eye open when looking at the various Stapleton photos I post. Like the R&H clock tower, the school's tower once dominated the town's sky) remained a vacant lot for decades.

The Stapleton Projects Project - Part Four

After a lengthy delay caused by 1)second eye surgery, 2)busted equipment at the Archive, and that ol' standby, 3)laziness, here's the return of the Stapleton Projects Project.

As in the last two posts, today's continues along Broad Street. Specifically, it's Broad between the vanished street, Clarke Street and the vanished, southern portion of Cedar Street.

As with the other buildings of lost Broad Street, it's a interesting mix of commercial and residential. Notice that Building F says Salvation Army on side. I think that's their original location (the present building at 15 Broad was the Veteran Fireman's Association).

The Stapleton Projects Project-Part Three

To make up for the debacle of the posting yesterday afternoon, I'm putting some more pictures right away.This block of Broad Street between the two vanished streets, Patten and Clarke, is a mix of commercial/residential buildings and actual houses. That's something you don't see much of anywhere. Just look at Port Richmond Avenue or New Dorp Lane. Detached houses would seem to a waste of valuable commercially zone lots.

For anyone curious about the name of this site, it comes from the Planet of the Apes movies.This site grew out of an earlier site called Fight Like Apes that fell apart with lots of unpleasant behavior. This site wasn't originally going to be about Staten Island. When it evolved into that I was already stuck with the name.

The Stapleton Projects Project - Part Two

So, while I had planned to work my way from in on the backstreets to out on Broad Street, that ain't happening. Actually finding the pictures on the microfilms spools is annoying. So, when I come across any block/lots for the area I decided I might as well get them when I can.

Which means for this post, we jump right to Broad Street. Specifically between Patten and Gordon. It's an interesting assortment of buildings, but all are commercial on the first floor and residential up above. That's a type of construction you don't seem to see anymore. Personally, I always thought it was sort of nice. You need to buy something, you just go downstairs. Seems pretty convenient, if you ask me.

What it meant for Stapleton, was that just as the neighborhood's population was drastically increased, it lost a host of businesses. It's seems like a pretty counterintuitive thing to do. Did the remaining businesses have the capacity to meet the needs of the new residents? Did the stores that suddenly faced decreased competition raise their prices or reduce the quality of their services?

Glorious Broad Street - Stapleton Again

   The commercial heart of Stapleton is always assumed to be located at Canal and Water Streets along Tappen Park.  Well that's probably accurate it neglects the stores that ran from Wright Street all the way up Broad Street to Van Duzer Street.  According to my map reading skills that's about 1/2 a mile.  Add to that Broad Street from Bay to Tompkins and you get another 1/4 of a mile.  There half of the latter was pretty much residential, but still, that's about a mile's worth of stores catering to the needs and desires of Stapleton's citizens.  Once you add in the Tappen Park surrounds and Bay Street, Stapleton probably had at least as much commercial property as Port Richmond did.  Now much is gone or pretty low rent stuff.  So it goes.

291,293 and 297 Broad Street at the corner of Targee - 1931

When I was a kid the building on the left housed a canine patrol.  Its logo was a snarling dog's head.  My sister's dance school was originally in the same building on the Targee Street side.  It was called "Charing's Dance School" (or something very similar)

                                            Broad and Targee, northwest corner - 1931

Same corner today - It was an empty lot even when I was a kid in the mid seventies - I remember doing a cleanup of it when I was in the Weblos or Boy Scouts which would have been around 1977.

Broad Street, east from Gordon Street - 1931

Today - the corner store was candy store with a soda fountain when I was kid.  I only went once or twice but my mom and sister went there a bunch when she went to dance classes.

Broad, Canal and Tompkins - 1931

Today - Back in the early nineties the pizzeria (and as long as I can remember the building in the foreground has housed one) was called "Two Crusts".  I don't get why but it did make us laugh when we ordered and they picked up the phone and said it.

Bonus Picture:  Cop contemplating the world - 1931

Back to Business

I've been away for awhile. The luminous Mrs. V and I took and extended road trip west through Ontario and America's northern tier to Glacier National Park in Montana. I strongly recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in seeing some of the country's most beautiful places.


In an effort to work something in with the heading I'd already come up with I glommed some pictures (the usual then/now sort of things) of businesses that are no longer with us even if the skeletal remains of their structures linger on in some reconfigured fashion. They reflect a pre-mall/shopping plaza era when the businesses people frequented were only a close walk, or at worst, a short bus ride away. While I miss the personal quirks of small, neighborhood stores, their higher prices and smaller selections make me not miss them that much.




View Larger Map
Canal Street, Stapleton 10/04/36 - north of Broad Street





View Larger Map

The foot of Victory Boulevard looking west from Bay Street, Tompkinsville - 11/08/33






View Larger Map

Morningstar and Innis, Elm Park - 3/24/28 - The curved section of the cornice on the building in the center reads "Bodine's Big Store".

More to come.......