Andrew Wilson's blog

Driving along Staten Island’s North Shore from St. George to Mariner’s Harbor one passes a string of marine industries: tug boat companies, dredging companies, marine electric companies, dry docks… ending at the sprawling Howland Hook container ship terminal. The marine industry has thrived along the shore of the Kill Van Kull since the days of sail. At points along the drive views of it’s early history can still be seen in the ruins of old wooden piers dry docks.

Many of the current marine businesses are hidden behind high walls and fences, visible only through their driveways. Driving by, one can occasionally catch a glimpse of a large propeller sitting in a yard or a ferryboat in dry dock but most of the work of the modern marine industries is hidden from public view. A new book seeks to change that. Readers can get a comprehensive overview of the past and present operations of New York Harbor’s oldest dry dock in Caddell Dry Dock: 100 Years Harborside.
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This post is a revised and updated version of an article that originally appeared in The Staten Island Historian, Winter-Spring 2002, Volume 19, New Series 2 published by the Staten Island Historical Society.

The Port Richmond Branch of The New York Public Library is rich with stories. It stands at 75 Bennett Street on the North Shore of Staten Island, N.Y., two blocks from the Kill Van Kull. A gift from the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, the historic red brick building faces Veterans’ Park and P.S. 20 in the Port Richmond neighborhood. The library’s history and its service to the people of Port Richmond mirror the rapidly changing community life of Staten Island.

First Attempts

The Port Richmond library was built in an area that had only received sporadic library service throughout the 19th century. Staten Island interest in a public library began as early as 1833 when the Franklin Society established a social library in Factoryville (now West New Brighton). A variety of small private library collections and literary associations sprang up on the North Shore throughout the century: The Young Men’s Free Reading Room, The Castleton Free Circulating Library (in the Unitarian Church of New Brighton), and the Young People’s Literary Association of Tompkinsville. These groups tried, with only partial success, to fill the need for library service.  read more »

Charles Dickens & Charles Dickens Jr., Charles Mackay & Marie Corelli

A poem appeared in the weekly London periodical All The Year Round of April 11, 1869. It is called AT HOME IN STATEN ISLAND. There’s no author identified other than a “home-sick Englishman” There’s a bracketed paragraph at the beginning of the poem that seems inserted like an editor’s note. It describes the differences between the landscapes of England and Staten Island in the terms of one who is familiar with both. The editor was Charles Dickens:

AT HOME IN STATEN ISLAND.

[For the proper understanding of the following
verses, written by a home-sick Englishman while
resident in Staten Island, near New York, it may
be necessary to state that in North America there
are neither daisies, nor primroses, nor skylarks, nor
nightingales, nor any bird with a musical note except
the mocking bird, which is not often heard north
of Maryland. The "dogwood" and the "catalpa,"
of which mention is made, are flowering trees of
great beauty in the vernal landscape.]

_____________________________________

My true love clasped me by the hand,
And from our garden alley,
Looked o'er the landscape seamed with sea,
And rich with hill and valley.
And said, "We've found a pleasant place
As fair as thine and my land,
A calm abode, a flowery home
In sunny Staten Island .

"Behind us lies the teeming town
With lust of gold grown frantic ;
Before us glitters o'er the bay,
The peaceable Atlantic .
We hear the murmur of the sea —
A monotone of sadness,
But not a whisper of the crowd,
Or echo of its madness.  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)
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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 »