Staten Island Home > History > Timeline
1904: February 9
Curtis High School opens in St. George. Named for the writer,
editor, orator George William Curtis.
1905: October 25
The City of New York takes control of the Staten Island
Ferry due to dangerous conditions created by private ferry operators.
1906: May 2
Borough Hall in St. George is dedicated.
1907: October
Procter & Gamble Corporation opens a factory in Mariners
Harbor where they produce Ivory Soap and other products for more than 80 years.
1912
Staten Island Lighthouse on Lighthouse Hill begins operation, guiding
ships from the Atlantic Ocean into Lower New York Bay.
1912: June 21
Abel Kiviat, a Curtis High School Track Star, wins the
Olympic silver medal for the 1,500-meter run in Stockholm, Sweden. He also captures
gold with the U.S. 3,000-meter relay team. He is the cabinmate of track great
Jim Thorpe on the ship to Sweden.
1913: November 12
Sea View Hospital opens to treat Tuberculosis patients,
becoming a national leader in the field.
1916
The New York Bay Oyster industry, long vital to Staten Island's
economy, is shut down by the New York City Health Department. Fears of Typhoid
caused by the polluted water force the closure. Staten Island Oysters had been
considered great delicacies around the United States and Europe. Recent efforts
have been made to reintroduce oysters into New York Bay.
1914-1918
World War I. More than 5,000 Staten Islanders join the armed
services, more men per capita than any county in the United States. 160 are
killed in action. 9,000 workers are employed building steel cargo ships for
the war effort at the Standard Shipbuilding Company on Shooter's Island.
1918
Wagner College moves to Staten Island from Rochester, NY. The campus
is established on the Cunard Estate, former home of the famed British shipping
line's American operations manager. The college has only 16 students at the
time.
1919
The former New Dorp farm of William H. Vanderbilt is converted
into a coastal air defense station. Named Miller Field air in 1920 for Captain
James E. Miller an American airman killed in France during World War I.
1922
The poet Langston Hughes lives and works for a season on a Staten
Island farm growing vegetables.
1923
Ground is broken in St. George and Brooklyn for a subway line connecting
the two boroughs. It is never completed.
1928: June 20
The Outerbridge Crossing and the Goethals Bridge, both
connecting Staten Island to New Jersey, open on the same day.
1929
The Staten Island Stapeltons, a long time Island semi-professional
team, joins the National Football League.
1931: November 15
The Bayonne Bridge opens connecting Elm Park, Staten Island
and Bayonne New Jersey. It is the longest Steel Arch Bridge in the world when
it is completed, just slightly longer than the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia.
1936: June 10
The Staten Island Zoo, in Barrett Park, opens.
1938
The US Maritime Service opens a training school for merchant marines
on Hoffman Island. By 1943 the school enrolled 1200 students. By 1947 the school
outgrew the island and moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
1941-1945
Staten Island fights World War II. A submarine net stretching
from Miller Field across the Narrows prevents attacks by German submarines in
New York Harbor. Troops train at Miller Field before being sent to fight in
Europe and Africa. 250 Italian Army prisoners of war are housed on Staten Island.
Island Anti-aircraft batteries defend New York City against potential air attacks.
1946: June 25
St. George Ferry Terminal is destroyed by fire. Three
are dead, 280 injured.
1947
Halloran General hospital is converted from military use to the
Willowbrook State Hospital.
1947
The Jacques Marchais Tibetan Museum, modeled after a Tibetan mountain
temple, is constructed on Lighthouse Hill. The museum has a large collection
of Tibetan art and was visited by the Dalai Lama in 1991.
1948: April 16
Fresh Kills Landfill opens. Planned only as a "temporary"
solution to New York's trash disposal problem the landfill will grow to become
the world's largest. The landfill operated for more than 50 years.
1950
The Korean War begins. Fears of an air attack on New York City
bring Staten Island anti-aircraft batteries back to full strength. The Korean
War Veterans Memorial Parkway, formerly the Richmond Parkway, now honors Staten
Islanders who served in the Korean conflict.
1951: October 3
Bobby Thomson, "the Staten Island Scot", hits
"the shot heard 'round the world" a homerun giving the National League
pennant to the New York Giants.
1953
Passenger runs along the North Shore Railroad, connecting St. George
and Mariner's Harbor, are abandoned.
1954
"Nike" guided surface-to-air missiles are based at Fort
Wadsworth continuing an active military role for the fort which began when the
Dutch constructed a block house on the spot in the 1600s.
1956: March
Staten Island Community College (CUNY) opens in St. George.
1958
Richmondtown Restoration, now called Historic Richmond Town, opens.
In Staten Island's answer to Colonial Williamsburg, costumed guides reenact
historical Staten Island trades and home life in original historic buildings.
1960 December 16
128 people are killed in a mid-air collision between a
TWA plane and a United Airlines plane over Staten Island's Miller Field. The
TWA plane rains wreckage down on Miller Field while the United plane flies as
far as Park Slope Brooklyn before crashing. It is the worst air disaster in
US history to that point.
1964: August 29
Mid-Island Little League defeats Monterrey Mexico 4-0
to win Little League World Series. Islander Dan Yaccarino pitched a no-hitter.
1964: November 21
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island
and Brooklyn opens. Othmar Amman, designer of the Bayonne Bridge, designed the
bridge. Then the largest suspension bridge in the world, the design had to incorporate
the curvature of the earth and seasonal expansions and contractions which drop
the roadway twelve feet lower in the summer than the winter. The bridge began
a massive building and population boom on the Island that continues into the
present day.
1964: December 18
NYC approval is given to establish a "Greenbelt"
park reaching from Sea View to New Dorp.
1965
At the first meeting of the newly created New York City Landmarks
Commission 6 Sailor's Snug Harbor buildings are designated as landmarks, saving
them from demolition.
1971
Geraldo Rivera brings the abuse of disabled students at the Willowbrook
State School to national attention. The publicity leads to the closing of the
school.
1971
St. John's University opens an Island campus after acquiring the
all women's College of Notre Dame.
1973: August 9
The Staten Island Mall opens. Stores in traditional shopping
areas such as Port Richmond relocate or close due as the large chain stores
gather together in one location.
1974
Thanks in part to the Clean Water Act of 1972, wading birds are
first spotted returning to the cleaner waters around Staten Island. By 1994
there were approximately 1300 pairs of wading birds on Shooters Island (43 acres),
Prall's Island (80 acres), and the Isle of Meadows (101 acres). New species
include ibis, heron, and egret.
1974
The Staten Island Children's Museum opens in a storefront. In 1986
the museum moves to its current location in Snug Harbor Cultural Center.
1975
The Borough of Richmond is officially renamed the Borough of Staten
Island.
1976: June
The last of the retired sailors relocate from Sailor's Snug
Harbor to Sea Level, North Carolina.
1976: July 1
New York City takes possession of the Sailor's Snug Harbor.
It begins its new life as the Snug Harbor Cultural Center with museums, artists'
studios, performance halls and botanical gardens.
1976: July 4
New York Cit celebrates the US Bicentennial with a parade
of tall ships in the Narrows and harbor.
1984
Prall's Island in the Arthur Kill is acquired by the New York City
Parks system as an 80-acre bird sanctuary.
1985: December 23
The Muslim Majlis Mosque, Staten Island's first Islamic
house of worship, is founded in Concord.
1986
The "Teleport" is opened by the Port Authority of NY
& NJ providing satellite and fiberoptic telecommunications to businesses.
1990
Several oil spills in New York Harbor turn back many of the gains made by nature
in reclaiming the waterways around Staten Island. In January an Exxon pipeline
spilled 567,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Arthur Kill damaging an estimated
197 acres of salt marsh and killing about 700 birds. Fortunately, the local
herons, ibis and egrets had migrated south at the time.
1990
The Stapleton Homeport opens providing major facilities for the
docking of US Navy war ships. It closed in 1994 due to budget cuts.
1993
The College of Staten Island starts moving to its new campus on
the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School.
1993: November
65% of Staten Island voters approve a draft charter for
an independent City of Staten Island but the charter is not adopted by the state
government.
1996: May 23
The New York State Senate approves the closing of the Fresh
Kills Landfill.
2001: September 11
Members of the Al Quaeda terrorist organization hijack
and crash two passenger jets into the World Trade Center destroying the building
and killing nearly 3,000. Staten Island bears much of the loss of life, nearly
300 residents, with a large numbers of firemen and World Trade Center workers
living on Staten Island. The Fresh Kills landfill is chosen to hold the debris
from the towers and serves as a crime lab for police investigators searching
for human remains.