Staten Island

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)
 read more »

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.

OK, so I admit the link of  this picture to the Tottenville Branch is tenuous–it is geographically far from Tottenville, but this is where the Tottenville Branch librarian (me) was born! Sadly, the building is unoccupied and in a very dilapidated state. After Staten Island Hospital moved to its new location (sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s) this building was converted into an apartment building, but it went bankrupt after a few years. Some squatters occupied  part of it a few years ago, but they were evicted. I think there are legal issues that keep it from being developed. It is a real eyesore in the neighborhood, which is very close to where I presently live.

(Picture from NYPL Digital Gallery)

From the NY City Landmarks Preservation Commission Study that Designated the Tottenville Branch a NY City Landmark, 1995) [Section 4 of 8] 

Carrere & Hastings

John Merven Carrere (1858-1911) was educated in Switzerland before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1877. Thomas Hastings (1860-1929), born in New York, spent a short time at Columbia University before entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. The future partners met in Paris, both earned their diplomas–Carrere in 1882, and Hastings in 1884–and entered the office of McKim, Mead & White, where they became reacquainted. In 1885, the two established a partnership in New York City. Encouraged by Henry Flagler, a partner in Standard Oil and a promoter interested in the development of Florida railroads and real estate, they designed and supervised the construction of chruches and hotels in Florida which reflected the Spanish Renaissance style and were innovative in their use of concrete. Their later hotels include the Laurel in the Pines Hotel (1889-90) at Lakewood, New Jersey, and the Hotel Jefferson (1893-94) in Richmond, Virginia. The firm’s later buildings were designed in the French Renaissance and Beaux-Arts styles, the latter exemplified in their winning competition design (1897) for the New York Public Library. The library (1898-1911, a designated Landmark) established Carrere & Hastings as one of the country’s leading architectural firms and a leading exponent of the Beaux-Arts style. The firm was also responsible for the design of at least thirteen Carnegie-funded libraries in New York, commissions awarded to the firm after the success of the main library building.

The highly prolific firm produced many other memorable designs which survive as designated New York City Landmarks. The First Church of Christ, Scientist (1899-1903) at the northwest corner of Central Park West and West 96th Street is in the finest tradition of Beaux-Arts classicism. The approaches and arch of the Manhattan Bridge (1905) and Grand Army Plaza (1913, a designated Scenic Landmark) show the firm’s interest in city planning. Richmond Borough Hall (1903-07), Staten Island, exhibits the firm’s predilection for the brick-and-stone architecture associated with early seventeenth-century France. In addition to monumental public architecture, Carrere & Hastings was very active in residential design; among the most highly regarded urban examples are the John Henry and Emily Vanderbilt Sloane Hammond Residence (1902-03) at 9 East 91st Street, which was inspired by Roman sixteenth-century palazzo design, and the Henry Clay and Adelaide Childs Frick Mansion (begun 1913-14) at 1 East 70th Street, modelled on eighteenth-century French sources. The firm is responsible for many large estates in the Northeast, as well as Woolsey and Memorial Halls (1906) at Yale University and the House and Senate Office buildings (1906) in Washington, D.C.

Carrere was a resident of Staten Island, and his firm’s work is well represented there, including the Kunhardt Mausoleum (1896) at Moravian Cemetery, dwellings at 110-144 Vanderbilt Avenue (1900), the Port Richmond Branch Library (1905), the St. George Library Center and Stapleton Branch Library (both 1907), the County Courthouse (1919), and the Hughes Memorial Branch Library (1928) in New Dorp, in addition to the  already mentioned Borough Hall and Tottenville Library.

Carrere was a member of the Architectural League of New York, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a member of the Beaux-Arts Society of New York, and director of the American Academy at Rome. He was killed in an accident in 1911. Hastings continued to work under the firm’s name, producing designs for large office buildings such as the Standard Oil Building (1920-26, with Shreve, Lamb & Blake) at 26 Broadway and the Cunard Building (1917-21, with Benjamin Wistar Morris) at 25 Broadway. Hastings was an early exponent of the curtain wall system of construction and experimented with it in the Blair Building (1902, demolished) at 24 Broad Street and Exchange Place. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a founder and a president of the Architectural League.

From the NY City Landmarks Preservation Commission Study that Designated the Tottenville Branch a NY City Landmark, 1995) [Section 3 of 8] 

New York Public Library and Andrew Carnegie

The New York Public Library, a private corporation providing library services under contract to the City of New York, is the product of an amalgamation first of several privately-owned libraries and, later, various free circulating libraries. The consolidation in 1895 of the excellent research facilities of the privately-owned Astor and Lenox Libraries (founded respectively by the will of John Jacob Astor in 1849 and by the famous book collector and philanthropist James Lenox in 1870) and the Tilden Trust (established in 1886 by the will of former governor of New York Samuel J. Tilden) formed the basis for the Reference Department. Meanwhile, the New York Free Circulating Library, established in 1878, incorporated two years later, and aided by public funds beginning in 1887, was supported initially by wealthy New Yorkers such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jacob H. Schiff and Henry G. Marquand, who were interested in encouraging the self-education of the poor and aiding the underprivileged. In 1901 the Free Circulating Library, which had grown to include eleven branches, was incorporated with several smaller free circulating libraries in the city to form the Circulation Department of the New York Public Library (now the Branch Libraries System). 

The Library branch system, which serves the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, owes most of its development to industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the exemplar of the self-made man. His philanthropic philosophy was spelled out in two articles published in 1889 in the North American Review and later reprinted as the title essay of his book, The Gospel of Wealth and Other Timely Essays (1901). Carnegie’s aim, “to help those who would help themselves,” would be achieved through “a free library…provided the community will accept and maintain it as a public institution, as much a part of the city property as it public schools, and, indeed, an adjunct to these.” As early as 1881 he had donated a library to his native town in Scotland and later to Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania communities. In New York, where he had lived since 1867, he served on the board of the Free Circulating Library beginning in 1893 and assisted in money-raising campaigns. In 1901 he sold his steel company to J.P.Morgan and began seeking a substantial philanthropy to which he could direct his attention and his wealth. Following the guarantee that the Public Library and the Free Circulating Library would merge, as Carnegie had advocated, he pledged $5.2 million for the establishment in New York City of sixty-five library branches (divided among the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Borough Library) to cost $80,000 each. For the three boroughs it served,  the New York Public Library would construct and equip the libraries with the Carnegie funds and operate them as free circulating libraries on lease from the city, which would maintain the properties. In November 1901, the New York Public Library agreed that architectural services for the anticipated buildings would be provided by three highly prestigious firms: Babb, Cook & Willard; McKim, Mead & White; and Carrere & Hastings. Carrere & Hastings received contracts for all four Carnegie libraries built on Staten Island. It was agreed that the Carnegie branches would embody a distinctive type, uniform in design, materials, general characteristcs, and scale; the resulting buildings were of superior architectural quality. Eventually Carnegie’s unprecedented beneficence totaled $65 million for approximately 2,900 libraries in the English-speaking world. 

(From the NY City Landmarks Preservation Commission Study that Designated the Tottenville Branch a NY City Landmark, 1995) [Section 2 of 8] 

The Tottenville Free Library

Early American libraries were associated with churches, towns (or school districts), colleges, or cooperative groups; during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the progressive free public library movement overshadowed those initiatives. On Staten Island, particularly following the Civil War, libraries slowly began to form with the development of literary and historical societies, two of which were based in Tottenville. In 1897 a group of women founded the Philemon club (later known as the Philemon Literary and Historical Society), to pursue their interest in literature, art, science, civics, philanthropy, and music; their male counterparts established the Philo Debating Society. Together they called a public meeting on February 6, 1899, at which time the Tottenville Library Association was organized. In the subsequent weeks, the Board of Trustees was established, a constitution adopted, and officers elected: Frank Joline (president), Mrs. Cynthia M. Little (vice president), Mrs. Mary Mason(secretary), Gilbert S. Barnes (treasurer), and Rev. J.C. Hendrickson; committees were appointed, by-laws adopted, and an application for a charter was made to the regents of the University of the State of New York. Mr. Joline, a United States customs official, solicited residents of the town for books, maps, charts, and related materials as well as for funds.

On April 29, 1899, the Tottenville Free Library opened to the public. It was the first free public library chartered for Richmond County by New York State. Its 230 volumes, mostly unbound, were housed in two rooms on the ground floor of a double house at 137 (now 204-206) Johnson Avenue, a frame structure featuring a full-width wood porch. Association vice president Cynthia M. Little and secretary Mary Mason were the first librarians. The state charter was received in June. A printed announcement from 1901 offers a detailed view of the fledging institution: following the appointment of Mrs. Leonara C. McCormack as librarian, the building was open Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 and

Reference books at the Library incude[d] a Standard Dictionary, a set of Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 20 volumes of “The World’s Best Literature,” Rand & McNally’s Atlas–and many other valuable works.

The Association especially urged library patrons to read “standard works” and permitted the use of the rooms as a common meeting-place, where, under proper restrictions, games of checkers and chess could be played, enabling Mr. Joline to posit, “Thus the sphere of a small library, can with good to a community, be extended beyond its ordinary limits.” By 1901, the Tottenville libarary had taken over the administration of a state traveling library located at the Prince’s Bay office of the S.S. White Dental Company plant.

In November 1900, supporters of the library began to discuss the purchase of land for a building site, so it is not surprising that the Association was poised to take advantage of intustrialist Andrew Carnegie’s offer to finance new buildings to be used as free, public circulation libraries.

(From the NY City Landmarks Preservation Commission Study that Designated the Tottenville Branch a NY City Landmark, 1995) [Section 1 of 8] 

History of Tottenville

The southwestern tip of Staten Island (Richmond County), once an important Native American habitation site and burial ground, has a recorded history which dates to the 1670s, when Captain Christopher Billopp built a stone manor house (the Billopp or Conference House, a designated New York City Landmark) and initiated ferry service to Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Billopp’s plantation, later enlarged and given the title “Manor of Bentley,” was the largest holding in the West Division (later renamed Westfield Township), one of the four precincts into which the county was divided. Following the Revolution, the Billopp property was confiscated by the State of New York, partitioned, and sold; it continued to be used largely for farming and as a base for fishing and associated maritime trades. Gradually the land was subdivided into smaller lots and by the 1840s a hamlet began to form around the ferry landing and the nearby sections of Amboy Road, the path leading to it. The slow-growing settlement soon came to be known as Tottenville, after the prominent family who had erected a wharf, Totten’s Landing. Many local residents were engaged in the oyster business and ship-building, which remained leading occupations and mainstays of the area economy into the 1920s, while the waterfront setting and frequent steamer and ferry connections prompted the development of small summer resorts, restaurants, hotels, and other recreation businesess.

The completion in 1860 of the Staten Island Railroad, which ran from Vanderbilt’s Landing on the island’s east shore to a depot near the hamlet’s ferry landing, establishing an important link between the developing village and the rest of the island, spurred the growth of an adjacent commercial area. During the subsequent decade, a post office was begun and soon named Tottenville, and the hamlet was officially incorporated as a village–the only one to be chartered on the island’s southern and western sections. The village, re-incorporated in 1894, reached a peak of development at the close of the nineteenth century, when many commercial and civic institutions–such as the Tottenville Free Library, several weekly newspapers, the Atlantic Terra Cotta works, and Tottenville Copper Company–were established. From the 1870s through much of the present century, Tottenville has been the largest, most populous, and most cohesive settlement in the southern section of Staten Island and has retained its individuality as a suburban village.

The third (I guess you can say annual) Staten Island Film Festival will take place from June 5 to 7, with an awards ceremony on June 8. They are actually changing the name to SINY Film Festival, because “SINY” is being used in other Staten Island promotions.

I didn’t get to attend last year’s (I was in Spain) but I did see about 5 or 6 films in 2006 and about half were really excellent, 2 were just OK and only one was dreadful.

About 75 films will be shown this year in only 3 venues: College of Staten Island, JCC in Seaview, (both deep in the heart of Staten Island) and the Richmond County Bank Ballpark in St. George (right next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal). The last two years they had 8 venues, but this year apparently they want to make it easier for filmgoers to see more films without having to run all over Staten Island. The 75 films are in 25 categories, from Best International Feature, to Best Dramatic Short, to Best Cinematography, to Best Staten Island Local Film.

I’ll be there this year! I think it is a great event–I dragged along two friends in ‘o6 who aren’t really film buffs, but they enjoyed it, too.

Links below are story from Staten Island Advance announcing the festival and the other is a link to the festival’s home page.

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1196427640307050.xml&coll=1

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1196427640307050.xml&coll=1