Yesterday, the NY Daily News ran a nice article highlighting the best of Stapleton's beautiful homes. There were good pictures and information on Harrison Street and St. Paul's Avenue (the usual suspects). I can't find the link for it so if you want to see it you need to find your old copy.
There was also a mention of the city backed disaster about to start at the Homeport . Of all the things I dislike about the Napoleon of City Hall, regarding Staten Island, it's his killing of the movie studio planned for the Homeport that angers me the most. It was frowned on by the Giuliani people in EDC but it was the present mayor that murdered it for good.
Let's see, we have an already operating business that will employ people at high salaries who'll spend money in the area. But wait, it'll compete with studios in other boroughs. And the local developers want to get their hands on the land. What to do?
Instead we'll build an pointless mixed-use complex. When they can't fill or finish apartments or storefronts in St. George and Tompkinsville (where people really might want to live) do they really think this will succeed? That it will become a destination shopping district? It leaves me all very annoyed.
Showing posts with label St. Paul's Avenue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Paul's Avenue. Show all posts
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Big Houses on the Hills
Until about 1986, the property across the street from my family's home on Cebra Avenue was a high, tree covered hill with an old foundation and driveway hidden away in the overgrowth. Throughout my childhood ramblings across the wooded spaces of Staten Island I came across several old foundations. One was in the woods near my grandma's house on Henderson Avenue and another was several blocks from my Cebra home on Austin Place.
Going through the old survey maps on the NYPL's site I've discovered the names of the owners of these and similar houses and in some cases the names of the homes themselves. It's a great find and a fascinating look at Staten Island's old, wealthy past.
Cebra Avenue and Ward Avenue - Someone named Chester E. Clark owned the house across from mine and called it Hill Top. This map is from about 1917. By the time my family moved to Cebra in 1969 the house was long gone. Today all that remains is the man's name split into the names of two inconsequential little streets and about one hundred shoddy attached houses.
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Highview Avenue and East Buchanan Street - Taking a walk with the luminous Mrs. V. one day up Highview we spotted the foundation remnants shielded from the casual passerby by the trees covering the now houseless lot. Once a man named Thomas Bushell owned it. Now it's nothing.
Henderson Avenue and Bard Avenue - This house was two up from my grandma's house. I remember coming across the ruins and my grandfather telling me it was from a house that'd burned down some years ago. Today I can't tell who owned it and if it even had a name.
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Austin Place and Ward Avenue - This house stood on what had become a large wooded lot we hung out in all the time by time I was twelve years old. The Fredericks house was still standing, occupied by a scary old lady supposedly related to my friend Bruce N., until only a few years ago. It was finally torn down and the lot was covered with ugly attached houses and a series of plug ugly "mini mansions".
When I hung out there and played manhunt and other games, the basement of the Lederle house was still there sunk beneath the earth and covered with the old flooring. There was hole, probably from a stair case, you could climb down into. Rising up over the place the tennis courts had been once been was a great dark stone wall. The first time I saw it it was like finding a lost ruin from Middle Earth. The Austin woods were by far the most interesting "natural" place we ever found when we were kids.
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When I come across these lost houses and family names I think about how they got this way: torn down, forgotten and built over. Do these families exist anymore? Obviously they had money, but if they still exist, do they still have it? Did all these houses burn down while occupied or where they abandoned and succumbed to fire from lighting or arson? Where they simply torn down and the land sold off?
It's a sad thing to see a home that's become abandoned and forgotten. I wonder what happened there. How many games of catch were played on the lawns and hands of euchre in the drawing room? Did servants live on the grounds and were they well treated? What happened to the businesses the owners ran to make their money? I don't know and I doubt anyone else cares anymore.
Going through the old survey maps on the NYPL's site I've discovered the names of the owners of these and similar houses and in some cases the names of the homes themselves. It's a great find and a fascinating look at Staten Island's old, wealthy past.
Cebra Avenue and Ward Avenue - Someone named Chester E. Clark owned the house across from mine and called it Hill Top. This map is from about 1917. By the time my family moved to Cebra in 1969 the house was long gone. Today all that remains is the man's name split into the names of two inconsequential little streets and about one hundred shoddy attached houses.
View Larger Map
Highview Avenue and East Buchanan Street - Taking a walk with the luminous Mrs. V. one day up Highview we spotted the foundation remnants shielded from the casual passerby by the trees covering the now houseless lot. Once a man named Thomas Bushell owned it. Now it's nothing.
Henderson Avenue and Bard Avenue - This house was two up from my grandma's house. I remember coming across the ruins and my grandfather telling me it was from a house that'd burned down some years ago. Today I can't tell who owned it and if it even had a name.
View Larger Map
Austin Place and Ward Avenue - This house stood on what had become a large wooded lot we hung out in all the time by time I was twelve years old. The Fredericks house was still standing, occupied by a scary old lady supposedly related to my friend Bruce N., until only a few years ago. It was finally torn down and the lot was covered with ugly attached houses and a series of plug ugly "mini mansions".
When I hung out there and played manhunt and other games, the basement of the Lederle house was still there sunk beneath the earth and covered with the old flooring. There was hole, probably from a stair case, you could climb down into. Rising up over the place the tennis courts had been once been was a great dark stone wall. The first time I saw it it was like finding a lost ruin from Middle Earth. The Austin woods were by far the most interesting "natural" place we ever found when we were kids.
View Larger Map
When I come across these lost houses and family names I think about how they got this way: torn down, forgotten and built over. Do these families exist anymore? Obviously they had money, but if they still exist, do they still have it? Did all these houses burn down while occupied or where they abandoned and succumbed to fire from lighting or arson? Where they simply torn down and the land sold off?
It's a sad thing to see a home that's become abandoned and forgotten. I wonder what happened there. How many games of catch were played on the lawns and hands of euchre in the drawing room? Did servants live on the grounds and were they well treated? What happened to the businesses the owners ran to make their money? I don't know and I doubt anyone else cares anymore.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Van Duzer Street - from North to South
Running from Tompkinsville to Stapleton and then to Concord and parallel to St. Paul's Avenue, Van Duzer Street is lined with some of the most interesting older houses and buildings surviving on the Island. The street's name is obviously Dutch in origin (street name seem to be the only lasting impression of my forbears founding of this city) but beyond that I don't know specifically for whom it's named. I've only posted pictures from the beginning of Van Duzer at Victory Blvd in Tompkinsville to Targee Street in Stapleton. It's the stretch I'm most familiar with and definitely the most interesting.
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Facing North(ish) on Van Duzer and looking at Victory Blvd.
The original El-Bethel AME Church and as it looks today
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247 Van Duzer Street at between Clinton and Baltic. According to the late Dick Dickenson's edition of "Holden's Staten Island" this little house dates from before 1786. Wow.
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House on the corner of William and Van Duzer with restaurant addition - appears on 1874 map - Many of us know it with varying degrees of distaste as Giggles, the 19th Hole or perhaps Beer Goggles.
292 Van Duzer Street - the Democratic Club c. 1935 - in 1874 it was owned by W.C. Anderson. Today it remains but in a considerably worn down state
Looking west along Van Duzer at Sands Street - in the background is the steeple of Trinity Lutheran Church
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This beautiful house on the corner of Van Duzer and Smith Terrace. In 1874 it was owned by K. Jessup. Today it is much more secluded and sits hidden behind trees.
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523 to 525 Van Duzer Street - in 1932 the wood frame building was occupied by the Eagle Social Club.
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561 Van Duzer Street - This old brick home was owned by J. Oneill in 1874 and Chas. Rosenberg from 1907 to 1917. The old picture dates from 1932
So ends our incredibly edited and short trip along Van Duzer Street. There are some great pictures I left out. Maybe later.
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Facing North(ish) on Van Duzer and looking at Victory Blvd.
The original El-Bethel AME Church and as it looks today
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247 Van Duzer Street at between Clinton and Baltic. According to the late Dick Dickenson's edition of "Holden's Staten Island" this little house dates from before 1786. Wow.
View Larger Map
House on the corner of William and Van Duzer with restaurant addition - appears on 1874 map - Many of us know it with varying degrees of distaste as Giggles, the 19th Hole or perhaps Beer Goggles.
292 Van Duzer Street - the Democratic Club c. 1935 - in 1874 it was owned by W.C. Anderson. Today it remains but in a considerably worn down state
Looking west along Van Duzer at Sands Street - in the background is the steeple of Trinity Lutheran Church
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This beautiful house on the corner of Van Duzer and Smith Terrace. In 1874 it was owned by K. Jessup. Today it is much more secluded and sits hidden behind trees.
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523 to 525 Van Duzer Street - in 1932 the wood frame building was occupied by the Eagle Social Club.
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561 Van Duzer Street - This old brick home was owned by J. Oneill in 1874 and Chas. Rosenberg from 1907 to 1917. The old picture dates from 1932
So ends our incredibly edited and short trip along Van Duzer Street. There are some great pictures I left out. Maybe later.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Lost Churches of Staten Island
I've alluded to, and even posted about, several of the North Shore's lost churches. These are the ones that time and tide have overcome and been replaced or simply forgotten as their congregations move away. I hope to find more pictures next week in the archives but for now these should prove interesting.
The original St. Paul's Catholic Church in New Brighton on Clinton Avenue - this beautiful Italiante church was replaced with a modern and boxy one, presumably in the sixties. Recently it has been essentially merged with the Assumption on the other side of New Brighton and switches Sundays back and forth for the celebration of the Mass.
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Original Episcopal Church of St. Simon on Clove Road
This little wooden Episcopal church was demolished to make way for either the highway or the lead on for the Verrazano (I can't remember which). It too was replaced with a (at least externally) soulless little piece of sixties architecture.
Original Episcopal Church of the Ascension - Richmond Terrace near Alaska Street
I've written about this gorgeous old church before and I was very happy to come across this new (to me) picture of it from a different perspective. The page I glommed the pictured from said that the church burned down in 1946 and the building to the right(most likely the rectory) is still in use by Rogers Surveying.
The replacement is actually a pretty building tucked away alongside the far reaches of Clove Lakes Park on Kingsley Avenue
Randall Memorial Church in Snug Harbor - I don't know the exact dates of this church's destruction but I think it was mid-twentieth century. It fell into disrepair and was crumbling. Instead of renovating and saving it the trustees demolished it.
Original Episcopal St. Paul's Church on St. Paul's Avenue and Paxton - This small wooden church was replaced by the beautiful stone church on the other side of St. Paul's Avenue
The original St. Paul's Catholic Church in New Brighton on Clinton Avenue - this beautiful Italiante church was replaced with a modern and boxy one, presumably in the sixties. Recently it has been essentially merged with the Assumption on the other side of New Brighton and switches Sundays back and forth for the celebration of the Mass.
View Larger Map
Original Episcopal Church of St. Simon on Clove Road
This little wooden Episcopal church was demolished to make way for either the highway or the lead on for the Verrazano (I can't remember which). It too was replaced with a (at least externally) soulless little piece of sixties architecture.
Original Episcopal Church of the Ascension - Richmond Terrace near Alaska Street
I've written about this gorgeous old church before and I was very happy to come across this new (to me) picture of it from a different perspective. The page I glommed the pictured from said that the church burned down in 1946 and the building to the right(most likely the rectory) is still in use by Rogers Surveying.
The replacement is actually a pretty building tucked away alongside the far reaches of Clove Lakes Park on Kingsley Avenue
Randall Memorial Church in Snug Harbor - I don't know the exact dates of this church's destruction but I think it was mid-twentieth century. It fell into disrepair and was crumbling. Instead of renovating and saving it the trustees demolished it.
Original Episcopal St. Paul's Church on St. Paul's Avenue and Paxton - This small wooden church was replaced by the beautiful stone church on the other side of St. Paul's Avenue
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