Banksapalooza! Part Two - Richmond County Savings Bank

   Standing at the corner of Castleton Avenue and Taylor Street, this 1930 picture gives us so much more than just a great shot of the Richmond County Savings Bank.  There are several little details worth examining.  

In the window at the center left of the picture is a sign advertising the law offices of Francis F. Leman.  I couldn't find much information about him, but in 1920 he had an office at 1619 Richmond Terrace (which was right next door to the Richmond County Savings Bank's office).  According to the American Lawyer he was was from Mariners' Harbor and admitted to the bar in 1894.  I'm sort of 

   At the top of the building with Leman's offices it reads Richmond Insurance Company of NY.  Again, I don't have many specifics concerning the institution, but it was chartered in Illinois.

   Finally, there is the Richmond County Savings Bank.  The bank was found in 1886 just a few blocks away in the Odd Fellows Hall at Broadway and Richmond Terrace.  Today it's one of several divisons of the New York Community Bank.

From the New York Times - October 21, 1886

   The fact that such an impressive neo-classical design is parked on such a grubby commerical strip is a testimony ot how much that part of West New Brighton's changed over the last eighty years.  Once upon a time there were nice department stores, bakeries and movie theaters.  Today, it's not quite the same.

   The bank itself is stripped some of its old architectural charm.  The entrance lamps are gone.  The beautiful clock is now replaced with an ugly light up plastic sign.  It's a rare building on the Island from so long ago that seems able to hold on to the little exterior frills that help make it special.

   So there's another bit of old time Staten Island for you.  Someday I need to get pictures from inside these institutions.  This and the Stapleton SI Bank & Trust are beautiful inside.  So, I guess I got to work on that.

Shults Bread Company and company

On Cary Avenue and Taylor Street in West New Brighton (edging perilously close to Port Richmond), stands an old factory built of red brick. In my time it's housed the Art Network (who remembers that now?) and then, in one form or another, a church for the last decade or so.

Apparently, formed from the consolidation of several bread wholesalers, for a few years the Shults Bread Co. was one of the most prolific bakeries in NYC. They operated a dozen factories in and around the city (six in Brooklyn, their home, alone). In 1923 they were acquired, in a stock deal, by the United Bakeries Corporation and were no more. UBC renamed itself Continental Bakeries, and became one of the biggest bakers in the country.










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I've posted this theater before, but here's it's in a larger neighborhood context. It was the first movie theater on Staten Island and until recently it maintained much of its original facade (see the googlemaps' picture) though its present Pentecostal owners have finally fixed up the building and covered it over.

The intersection of Castleton and Broadway and several blocks around seem to have been an entertainment nexus a century ago. There was an opera house (!) on Henderson and Broadway and a movie theater on the corner of Broadway and Noble. Now there's projects, dollar stores and scary delis.

Tell me again how were things improved when the projects replaced older working class apartments? Am I wrong in thinking that people aren't meant to live piled together in giant apartments like ants? How many people and neighborhoods suffered because Corbusier offered a cheap way out for packing in the poor like rats?







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