Van Duzer Street - blocks of wonder, sort of - Part One

   Van Duzer Street lies a few mere blocks east of St. Paul's Avenue.  Unlike St. Paul's it's never seemed to have gotten the love from the preservationists that it deserves.  I wonder if that's because it's less upscale and more heavily trafficked.  Preservationists always seems to target the streets with large expensive homes that they own already, not equally important (from a historical perspective) areas that might be a little more worn or less desirable.   Which I guess is a good thing because historical districts tend to push out poorer owners and replace them with wealthier (and usually whiter) ones (facts and figures available upon request).  Any renaissance connected with such districts tends to be the kind that comes anytime big money pushes out little money.
   All that being said, I'm not sure I'd want to live on Van Duzer Street myself.  The traffic is heavy and constant and wouldn't want that outside my front door.  I doubt it's ever truly quiet along the street.  But it is a street with beautiful and interesting homes and buildings.

open the maps in a new tab so you can enlarge and zoom in on them

   I debated (with myself, and it was contentious) about how to put up pictures to accompany these maps.  They're a labor of love and I hope some of that love is contagious.  I want people to look at them closely, think about what the street and surrounding blocks look like today, how they compare to each other, what they must have looked like in years past.  All sorts of stuff.

   One way to do that is simply present you (the readers) with photos with addresses but no key to their map location.  To figure that out you'll have to search the maps.  You can do it just by that.  I've found so many surprising things in preparing these two maps I'm sure you'll find things I haven't noticed.  

   I think this is the sort of thing I'm going to be doing for the next several posts in general.  If you don't think it's a good idea, please, let me know and I'll figure out something else to do.  Thanks, as always, for reading and commenting on something I thoroughly and utterly enjoy doing.

                35 to 51 Van Duzer, 4/1929                                                   41 Van Duzer Street, 2/2012

             63 Van Duzer (center), 3/1927                                     59, 63, and 67 Van Duzer, 2/2012

219, 221, 223 Van Duzer, 2/2012 - beautiful early to mid 19th century side gable houses

226 Van Duzer, 5/1935

292 Van Duzer Street - left - 5/1935 (a this time it was the Democratic Club) - right - 2/2012

310 Van Duzer Street - left - 5/1935 - right - 2/2012

According to the NYC records on-line this home date to at least 1835 - a neighbor of it told me it was the oldest house on the block

324 Van Duzer Street - left - 5/1935 - right - 2/2012

   The mighty fortress that is Trinity Lutheran Church can be easily seen on the hill overlooking Van Duzer Street.  The "for sale" sign mention Cornelius G. Kolff.  As an Islander of a certain vintage I only know the name as from the old ferry that got turned into a prison boat and then scrapped.

   Turns out he was a major land developer, Staten Island promoter and folklorist and part-time philosopher. Most of this I actually came across in an article from the Northeast Tolkien Society. 

   So that's all for today.  I've just got a ton of stuff to post and this is long enough.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the rest up for your perusal.

I Was Born There

   Well, not actually.  I was born in the newer section but you know what I mean.  Sadly, after three decades of neglect and misplaced trust that "somebody" would do "something" to save it, the Smith Infirmary was demolished by the City earlier today.  The SILIVE has pictures and video.

   I'm a little disappointed with myself for never going back and getting some better, closeup pictures of the building but it sure ain't happening now.  So it goes.  I wonder how many poorly built townhouses they're going to fit on the property.
 

Stapleton: A Bit Of A Rant

   I've bought my share of the Images of America books pertaining to Staten Island over the years.  The one about the Jewish community is particularly compelling and actually filled with useful information and amazing pictures.  I've never bothered, though to buy many more.  Instead of solid information and pictures, they, the Irish community one in particular, seem really an excuse for lots of family pictures.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just not something I need to spend twenty bucks on.
   A few years back several neighborhood specific books came out and I got a little excited.  There are so many things I don't know about that any new information is compelling.  Unfortunately, when the Stapleton book came out (my hometown) I was pretty underwhelmed.  There are good pictures and information, don't get me wrong, but it just didn't feel well put together.

  Paging through the book I was struck by the caption on a picture of the Elk's Club building on Van Duzer Street.  It said that the exact location of the building was unknown.  That surprised me.  I was always pretty sure I knew which building it was myself (simply by looking at the buildings actually on Van Duzer Street).  Still, maybe I was wrong and someday I'd have to look into it better.
   Well, that day's come.  I'm in the middle of working on a post concerning Van Duzer Street, from Beach to Victory and the Elk's Club came back up.  So I drove on over with my camera and started getting some pictures.






   I think the pictures make it pretty clear the building of yesterday is the building of today.  Sure it's been stripped of any attractive detailing and windows have been blocked and the mansard roof has been obliterated. But it's the same building.  If you drive down the street you can still see the porch that's in the left of the postcard on the house next door.
   It was hard to get a clear picture of the lowest portions of the building but if you enlarge it you can see the same same basement windows with curved tops.  There's the outcropping on the left towards the rear and the whole two stage outcropping at the front.  Pretty terrible devastation was wrought on this building but it must have been a beast to maintain.

   So here are the maps from 1874, 1885 and 1917.  Same building footprint (save the added bowling alley in by 1917), same location.  Not only is it listed as the Elk's Club on the 1917 map but on the two earlier maps it's designated the Methfessel Institute.  That means it's probably the first incarnation of Staten Island Academy prior to its move to Academy Place (originally Carroll Place).  I did this mostly sitting at a desk looking at easily available maps and pictures.    That's actually a very cool discovery.  The photos were really only for my own satisfaction as the maps say it all.

   I'm not expert on the history and architecture of the North Shore, only a motivated amateur.  I hope I never present myself here as anything more.  Still, I hope never to steer you wrong or fail to follow down any leads I can find.  Of course I will and I hope to hear from you and be corrected as swiftly as possible.  The fluidity of a blog and the ease of correction is definitely one of its greatest assets and I hope to utilize that to the best of my ability.

PS: While working on the Van Duzer post I found myself looking at the Amazon listing for the Stapleton book to make sure I was remembering the Elk's Club picture caption correctly when I came across another serious error.  Which of course makes me wonder how many more there might be.  

   This one concerns a "double house" on the north side of Beach Street between Jackson and Van Duzer Streets.  According to the authors the building, looking quite picturesque in 1927, drifted off into derelict status before being demolished in the 21st century.  Here's a shot similar to one in the book but from 1931.

   Here it is from today (sorry about the Google Maps picture, it's all I've got).  Still there, though.  I drove past it two days ago and it was STILL there.  Probably still now.


View Larger Map


   I know this sounds like I'm just griping.  At a certain level I surely am, but you know what, if you're going to put out a book take some time to go see the places you're writing about.  Look at the maps.  Get it right or leave it out.

PPS - It still is. I just drove past it.

This is the end.... The Smith Infirmary's Days Are Numbered

As promised, here's some fresh off the digital camera shots of the gradually collapsing Smith Infirmary of the original Staten Island Hospital.

   Taken from Cebra and Rosewood

   This is the perspective I saw the Smith Infirmary from at least once a day for over thirty years of my life.  Closed for over thirty years, I can still picture it as an operating facility with doctors, nurses, aides and all sorts of maintenance workers.   The shops at the intersection of Victory and Cebra flourished because of the hospital.  There were Kohlmann's Florist, Matty's Barbershop, Precious Treasures Gifts, a jeweler's, a liquor store and several bars.  

   Over time those places went away and were replaced by decreasingly good delis, junk stores and Albanian pizzerias.  At least these days there's Dosa Garden (which I'm not sure I could actually recommend enough).

The Hole  - below, unseen, a great pile of 

fallen bricks cover the ground

  Brooding over it all is the crumbling hulk of the old hospital.  For years there were plans to renovate it and turn it into some sort of condo complex.  When I, in an early incarnation, worked for the city, I tried to uncover the insane web of ownership of the place for a potential investor.  

   In the end, after looking at deeds, plans, transaction records and talking to the Commissioner for Finance it all came to nothing.  One man claimed to own it but, even in order to save himself millions of dollars in delinquent taxes, couldn't.  

   Ultimately the investor decided it was not worth dipping into the deep pool of garbage that was the old Staten Island Hospital site.  I guessed the place would just deteriorate until it got so bad that the city's office of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) would simply take possession of the complex and bulldoze it.

   The was thirteen years ago and the place was still salvageable but nothing happened.  Since then, even when the city had money, no North Shore or borough politician stepped forward to invest money to at least stabilize the place.  Then the roofs of the back buildings (where I worked on my dentistry merit badge) collapsed and HPD had to demolish them.

   And it got worse and worse.  There was fake landlord who rented out units in the converted new building.  Then there were squatters.  Eventually HPD did a better job of sealing the newer buildings up for good but the infirmary and other remaining old building (I think a nursing school) just crumbled.

  And now I'm proven correct.  HPD owns it and according to the Advance, they're going to raze it.

   For many of the past thirty-two years this (the hospital's new building that was converted to housing, though it was allegedly a real estate scam) has looked pretty much like this.  Through five City Council Members (the only one I consider blameless is Debi Rose because by the time she got elected the damage was done), three Borough Presidents, four mayors, three State Assembly members, two Staten Senators, and six members of the House of Representatives.  Many of them were North Shore born and raised.  

It's a little late.

For the New Year

   So here we are, 350 years old.  Did anyone attend any of the various seminars and events held commemorating the Island's 350th birthday?  I didn't.  Nothing really caught my eye and then I just sort of forgot about it.  Sort of shameful of me I guess.

   I've been thinking about what to do next as I need an incentive to get me posting more regularly.  I think I've come up with something that'll keep me going and it definitely involves maps - lots of maps.  So we'll see how that goes this week.

   Also, I hope to take and post some pictures of the collapsing Smith Infirmary.  I was driving home over Cebra Avenue the other day and WHAM!  I hadn't known how bad it had become.  I hadn't seen it from that perspective in some time and the caved in roof is pretty terrifying.  I know that eve through last spring people were taking clandestine tours and creeps of the place.  Guess they're feeling pretty lucky right now.  And good luck to the folks hoping to preserve some parts of it.

   So that's what I've got to say for now.  Hopefully I'll get the pictures tomorrow afternoon and I'll get back to posting at least once a week.  It's nice to dream.

Italian Episcopalians

  As a native Staten Islander born the year after the Verrazano Bridge was opened, I grew up hearing a lot about how the Brooklyn Italians were "flooding" and "ruining" the borough.  Whatever.  I suspect that was mostly said by the people who had no idea of the deep Italian roots already on Staten Island long before the Verrazano was built.  Eh, what can you do about people?  They're going to say what they're going to say.

   I'm glad this site started as the "church project" because the research I've done in that direction has been invaluable.  More than anything else it's given me a better understanding and insight into the development of the Island and the shifts in its population, native born and immigrant, over the past centuries.

   One of the most interesting things I've discovered are two churches formed as Italian protestant congregations.  One, that I don't have much information or pictures of, was the Italian Pentecostal church.  All I know is that it started on Pike Street in Tompkinsville in 1923 and later moved to Richmond Road.  Today it's the Christian Pentecostal Church.

 

Jewett Avenue and New Street  - 1929

   The other, which I have less information about, but some nice pictures of, is the Holy Redeemer Protestant Episcopal Church (Italian).  From it's name I assume it was a sort of mission outreach from Staten Island's old line (and Wasp) Episcopal churches to the Italian born immigrants.  I wonder what the thoughts that went into the decision to to that were.

  Was it thought that converting the Italians to mainline Protestantism would make the immigrants better citizens?  Less Italian and therefore more American?

   According to "A Brief History of the Episcopal Church" by David Lynn Holmes, Episcopalian outeach to Italians was possible because of Italian, particularly male, dissatisfaction with the Roman Catholic Church in America.  They were angry that the Church had opposed Italian unification in 1870 and they were frustrated by Irish domination of the Church in America.  Even many of the Episcopal priests were ex-Catholic priests.

   I can't imagine the Episcopal Church of today, even if it was still vibrant and relevant, doing the same sort of outreach/conversion to the Hispanic immigrant population in the neighborhood.  I think they'd think the whole undertaking reeked of racism and cultural superiority.

   How long were there enough converts to keep a congregation going?  Did they just merge into the existing English language congregations as they assimilated into America?  Holmes' book says that's what happened with earlier German converts to the denomination.  Like a history of Staten Island's Methodist congregations, I'd love one of the Episcopal churches.  While no one ever really answers, I'm asking for any information anyone's got.

   I love the swing set by the side entrance.  Today the church grounds are an auto repair lot.  That stretch of Jewett between Richmond Terrace and Castleton Avenue is one of the more scuzzy looking parts of Port Richmond.

 Same location, a cold December morning - 2011

Jersey Street 1968

The Staten Island Advance had a great page from its October 30, 1968 edition yesterday.  While hard to read, it shows several terrible pictures of Jersey Street's decaying storefronts in that year.  Jersey Street's history and decline is something I've written about several times in the past.

When I was a kid taking the old No. 5 bus to Curtis in 1980 I'd pass what I'm pretty sure was this stretch of buildings.  On had a tree growing out of it.  And then in 1983 or 1984 they were gone.

The long stretch of vacant stores were ripped down, presumably by the city, and replaced with fairly unattractive townhouses.  Still, it was a better alternative than letting the stores continue abandoned and present fire and safety hazards to the neighborhood.

I only wonder that the Advance doesn't appear to offer any speculation as to why the stores were abandoned.  Port Richmond stayed a viable shopping strip until some years after the Mall opened in New Springville.  Stapleton lingered on and still does to a some degree.  What caused Jersey Street to suddenly collapse?  Perhaps it was the projects?  Was it the Jewish working class moving up and away?  What, when and how did this happen to such a vibrant neighborhood?

Christmas Greetings

   I haven't posted lately because the Christmas season is upon us.  Too many things going on and whatnot.  But I'm still excited about doing this blog and proud of much of what I've done over the years.
   If I take a little time this week I might actually get some things up.  My fingers are very crossed right now.  Till then.

PS - Everyone have a blessed and happy Christmas!

Smith Infirmary - all things must pass

   According to the Advance the other day, the old heart of the original Staten Island Hospital, the Smith Infirmary, is about to end its days.  After thirty years of neglect it's been deemed unsound and unsafe by HPD and the Buildings Dept.
   I am of mixed emotions about the matter.  It's sad that such a magnificent building has been allowed to go to ruin but then it is a dangerous site that could simply collapse.    
   The city did nothing to preserve it but then it really had no obligation to do so.  It was a piece of private property sold to a private developer.
   That the developer appears to have been a con artist and the condos actually built in the newer building were ultimately abandoned is not the city's fault either.
  If it goes, which is most likely, I'll miss it.  It's been part of my landscape my entire life (literally - I was born in the old hospital).  Growing up and living on Cebra Avenue most of my life its literally been in my line of sight more days than not.  One of my earliest posts was about the old hospital and my friends and my exploration of the abandoned complex.  But it's what happens.  We can document the past, even fetishize it, but we can't stop it from becoming the past.
 

Small Churches - St. Sylvester's

   Escaping the same devastation caused by the creation of the Staten Island Expressway that forced St. Simon's Episcopal Church to relocate to Richmond Road, St. Sylvester's R.C. Church and its attached shrine survived in their original location at the corner of Clove Road and Targee Street.  It's a pretty neighborhood church that, unfortunately, suffers from the noise and exhaust of all the highway traffic just outside its doors.  Still, it escaped Robert Moses' assault.
   The only Catholic church I was at all familiar with growing up, was Our Lady of Good Counsel on Victory Boulevard near Silver Lake.  It's an ugly example of the awful modern architecture that all denominations seemed to think was a good idea at the time.  Just look at All Saints Episcopal, Olivet Presbyterian and Zion Lutheran for other examples of this drab ugliness.  I'll take the wood and stained glass simplicity of this style of church over any of those testaments to dioceses and boards of elders and church councils gone wrong.

  The church suffered the loss of its school this past summer in the Great School Closure that saw 27 schools in Archdiocese of New York cease operations.  Parochial schools have been taking severe hits for years now and the expansion of charter schools (essentially private style schools without the tuition) has been a stab in the gut to them.  
   Still, this little church persists and provides a reminder of smaller, quieter times on the Island.  There have been minor changes; the steeple's been enclosed and the wood shingle on it covered.  It remains an attractive place.  I do wonder how many people visit a grotto that once existed in just the quiet shadows of Grymes and Emerson Hills and today sits under the cacophonous one of the Expressway as well? 

The Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes

   The grotto in older days seems to have had a much wilder, more natural surroundings.  Today it sits on a perfectly manicured lawn with precisely trimmed hedges next to it.  Not an improvement in my eyes.

Once Upon a Farm

  Once Staten Island was covered in farms.  Even when I was a boy in the early seventies some lingered on before succumbing to the bank accounts and bulldozers of developers. The last one I remember sat on Forest Avenue near the old Majors department store in Mariners' Harbor (where Lowes and Kohl's sit.  It couldn't have had much land and it vanished when the street was widened (and this is all only the barest of memory and wide open to correction from you folks).
   Willowbrook was, apparently, part of the heartland of the Staten Island farming district.  It was well watered by the stream of the same name that ran through it.  Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church and Chrampanis Farms are remnants of the Greek farming community.  Immanuel Lutheran lingers from the German farmers long gone to New Jersey and points unknown.

573 Watchogue Road, May 1932

Same place, today

Aerial view, 1924

   That little pink splotch is the house and all the patchwork quilt around it is farmed land.  It shows up, unnamed, on the 1874 maps but I have no idea how old it is.  I would guess early 19th century but that is only a guess.  The farm appears to be carved out of a much larger piece of property belonging to the De Puy family, presumably one of the old Dutch families.

   Now, except for the odd placement of the side windows (which, I know, you can't see in the modern picture), you'd probably never suspect how out of time the house really is.    Under that siding is probably nearly two hundred year old wood shingle.  Very cool.

Beautiful Mansion Reigning on Jewett Avenue

    These splendid Victorian era mansions remain towering over the west side Jewett Avenue between Maine Avenue and the Boulevard.
   The latter has always struck me as the entrance to Westerleigh, the old National Prohibition Campground Association development.  It's hard to imagine a group of Americans actually dedicating themselves to any sort of restraint these days.

   The older pictures were taken in 1905.  The Beers' Map from 1874 only shows empty lots owned by a Smith family.  The temperance group didn't start buying property until around 1877 so this makes sense.  They do appear on the 1917 map but there're no owner names listed.

   Though they still stand, much of their period detail, like on so many of the houses I post about, has been stripped away.  The little architectural fripperies that enhanced the already considerably character of these houses has been worn away by time and, I imagine, expense.

   Still, while occasional tear downs still happen in Westerleigh, the neighborhood still preserves much of its 19th century feel and is more than well worth several drives through.

Tidewater Staten Island

1280 Richmond Terrace, 1931

   This simple and attractive house sits on the sharp bend in Richmond Terrace at the foot of Pelton Avenue.  The lot in the right of the picture has over the years been used as storage for bundles of wood as well as heavy equipment.  Once, though, it was a gas station, specifically a "Tydol" station.  I'd never heard of it so of course I looked it up.  Click on the link and you can learn about it too.  Then you'll have that going for you.

Same house, today

   The house, sans porch, doesn't otherwise look all that changed.  A fence has replaced the hedges, though with the increased traffic on the Terrace that would seem to be sensible.  The trees now tower over the house and the Captain's House behind it is hid from view.