Staten Island Timeline

Staten Island Timeline - 1800s

1812
Fort Richmond (now Fort Wadsworth) protects New York City from invasion by the British during the War of 1812. Several British ships are sighted off Sandy Hook, New Jersey in 1813 but do not risk passing under the guns of the Staten Island fort. Daniel D. Tompkins leads the effort to bolster the fort's defenses creating Fort Tompkins which sits at the top of the hill. By 1815, when the war's end was announced in New York, 900 cannons lined the shores around Fort Richmond. The fort is currently part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

1816: March 31
Modern day Victory Boulevard begins existence when the Richmond Turnpike Company is incorporated. Their coaches connected ferries from Manhattan at Tompkinsville to New Jersey bound ferries in Travis. It is owed by Daniel D. Tompkins and promoted as the fastest route from New York to Philadelphia.

1817: November 29
The first steam ferry begins service between Manhattan and Tompkinsville. Because of the high price of the commute (12 ½ cents each way) the ferry attracts primarily wealthy New Yorkers settle on the North Shore of Staten Island.

1819
Factoryville established in present day West New Brighton.

1827
After a long struggle, lead by Staten Islander Daniel D. Tompkins, slavery is abolished in New York State.

1827: October 17
The weekly newspaper the Richmond Republican, the first newspaper to cover Staten Island is produced (but printed in Manhattan).

1828
The first Prince's Bay Lighthouse is constructed

1830s (approx.)
Charles Goodyear opens a factory near his West New Brighton home to produce rubber toys, maps and surgical bandages. Goodyear revolutionized the rubber industry when he accidentally dropped a mixture of sulfur and rubber on a hot stove creating the process known as "vulcanization" (patented 1844) that strengthened rubber so that it could be used in industry.

1833
Sailor's Snug Harbor opens as the nation's first home and hospital for retired seamen. Its benefactor, Captain Robert Randall, created the institution in his will as a way to repay the sailors who had created his family's fortune.

1835
New Brighton, one of America's earliest suburban communities, was created. It featured a large hotel and Greek Revival style homes facing the Kill Van Kull. The development included part of today's St. George.

1836: September 12
Aaron Burr, former Vice President of the United States, dies in Port Richmond.

1839
Robbin's Reef Lighthouse, in Upper New York Bay near the St. George Ferry terminal, in commission. In 1886 Kate Walker became the keeper upon her husband's dying words: " Mind the light, Kate". She was one of a very small number of female lighthouse keepers in the nation. She rescued over 50 people during a career that lasted until 1919.

1839
St. Peter's, The Island's first Catholic parish is established in New Brighton.

1843-1844
Author Henry David Thoreau lives on Staten Island while tutoring the children of Ralph Waldo Emerson's brother, William Emerson.

1850
Italian born inventor Antonio Meucci comes to Staten Island from Cuba to develop and patent his telephone. His experiments with medical shock treatments had revealed the possibility of transmitting the human voice over electrical wires. Because Meucci lacked the funds to patent his invention the credit for the invention of the telephone eventually went to Alexander Graham Bell.

Ca. 1850
African Americans from New York City and the surrounding region began to settle permanently at Sandy Ground in the Woodrow/Rossville Area. They established the A.M.E Zion Church there. In the 1860s and 1870s free black oystermen from Snow Hill, a Maryland town on the Chesapeake Bay, greatly expand the community.

1851
Guiseppe Garibaldi military leader of Italian unification comes to Staten Island for two years supporting himself as a candle maker while living with Antonio Meucci in Rosebank.

1854
Kreischerville is founded in Southwest Staten Island. It was the home of clay mining operations (the remnants of which are still visible at Clay Pit Ponds State Park) and brick manufacture.

1856: January 21
Staten Island Historical Society is founded.

1858: September 1
Fearing the spread of contagious disease a mob of Staten Islanders burn the Quarantine Hospital in Tompkinsville. The hospital served immigrants to the US who were thought to be too ill to enter the country.

1860: April 23
The first passenger train on the Staten Island Railroad begins operating between Eltingville and Clifton (Vanderbilt's Landing)

1860
June Staten Island gets its first magnetic telegraph line.

1861-1865
During the Civil War Staten Island helps the Union War effort in several ways. Many Union regiments assemble on Staten Island to train before heading to battle including the Clinton Rifles, 178th and 145th Regiments. Staten Island ferryboats were mounted with cannons and served in the Union Navy. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, longtime Staten Island resident, led an African American Regiment into battle.

1863
St. George chosen as the site for a Lighthouse Depot to develop more effective lighthouses and distribute lamps and lenses throughout the country. In 1998 the site was selected as the home of the National Lighthouse Museum.

1863: July 14
Civil War draft riots spread to Staten Island. Homes of African Americans in Stapleton are burned as blacks are unfairly blamed for causing the war. At least 5 are killed on Staten Island and many others injured.

1867
Anna Harriet Leonowens opens a West New Brighton School on Richmond Terrace. She is best known for tutoring the 67 children of the King of Siam and the musical based on her experience - "The King and I".

1870
Swinburne Island, a man-made island off of South Beach, is constructed as a Quarantine hospital for immigrants arriving in America with contagious diseases. It replaces the quarantine ships which had housed the sick immigrants since the burning of the Tompkinsville Quarantine Station in 1858. Originally named Dix Island, after a former New York Governor, the name was soon changed to Swinburne after the Civil War Hero and surgeon who headed the development of the Island: John S. Swinburne.

1870
First defense of the America's Cup in the waters off Staten Island. The New York Yacht Club is based in a clubhouse located next to the Alice Austen House in Rosebank. The sailing yachts Magic and the original champion America are among the boats to defeat the British challenger Cambria.

1871: July 30
The worst accident in the history of the Staten Island ferry occurs. A boiler explosion aboard the ferryboat Westfield II kills over 125 passengers and injures over 200 as it departs South Ferry.

1873
Hoffman Island, a second man-made Quarantine Island, is completed off the shore of South Beach. Conditions on the both quarantine islands were often overcrowded and unsanitary. In 1901 7,801 people were detained on Hoffman Island. Use of the hospitals declined until they were finally closed in the 1920s. From 1931 to 1937 the island was used as a bird quarantine station for imported parrots. The island is named for John T. Hoffman, a former New York City Mayor and New York State Governor.

1874: March 20
Mary Ewing Outerbridge brings tennis to the United States for the first time. After seeing the game of lawn tennis played on a vacation to Bermuda Ms. Outerbridge decides to bring back the equipment and sets up the first court in St. George.

1880
Mary Ewing Outerbridge introduces tennis to the United States. After seeing the game played in Bermuda she sets up the first US tennis court on Staten Island. Tennis begins to spread widely and the first National Lawn Tennis Tournament is held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club.

1881: September
The forerunner of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences is founded by a group of local naturalists. The group calls themselves the Natural Science Association.

1882
The American Linoleum Manufacturing Company first introduces Electricity to Staten Island in Travis when they install electric lighting. Telephone service is also introduced to the Island this same year.

1883: November 29
Father John Christopher Drumgoole, a Catholic Priest, founds founds St. Vincent's Home for Homeless Newsboys at Mount Loretto on Staten Island's South shore. The facility provides care for thousands of homeless children.

1884
Tompkinsville's Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, becomes Staten Island's first Jewish congregation.

1886: March 8
The first ferry terminal at St. George opens combining a rail connection in the same building allowing for a fast transfer to points on the south shore.

1886: March 17
Noted Island photographer, Alice Austen, is born. The pioneering woman photographer captured thousands of images of Staten Island and New York City life. Her Rosebank home, "Clear Comfort", overlooking the Narrows is preserved as the Alice Austen Museum.

1886: March 27
Richmond County Advance begins publication.

1886: April
The Metropolitan Baseball Club of the American Association begins play at their St. George stadium. Before coming to Staten Island the team played in what many consider to be the first world series when they lost to the National League's Providence Grays in 1884.

1889: June 13
The first bridge from Staten Island to New Jersey is opened. The railroad bridge connects Howland Hook to Elizabeth New Jersey. It was later torn down to make room for the Goethals Bridge.

1898: January 21
Staten Island joins New York City. 73% of Staten Islanders approve the referendum that combines the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island into a single city. Up to this point Richmond County had been administered as five townships.

1895
Staten Island Chamber of Commerce founded.