Ocean Breeze ParkOn the eastern shore of Staten Island's Mid-Island section, you can find Ocean Breeze Park. This park is right across the street from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk and behind Staten Island University Hospital North and the South Beach Psychiatric Center. Ocean Breeze Park is an approximately 110-acre nature preserve that has been undergoing some changes.

Before the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation took over this land to make it a park, the land was a part of Staten Island University Hospital. Prior to becoming a park and as a park today, the land is filled with sand dunes, wetlands, shrub forests, and grassland areas. With Ocean Breeze Park containing all of these natural habitats, the New York City Department of Parks and…

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P.S. 35 was established in 1907 in the neighborhood of Stapleton. By the middle of the twentieth century, the school was Terrace Playground, Stapletonmoved to 60 Foote Avenue, in the Grymes Hill neighborhood. Around that time, an adjacent plot of land was acquired by New York City. This less-than-two-acres parcel was transferred to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, as well as the New York City Board of Education.

In 1953, when the site had opened as a park, it was called P.S. 35 Playground. At that time, the park was given basketball courts, handball courts, play equipment, and shuffleboard areas. A plaque was erected in the park in 1997 to commemorate the opening of the park.

Since P.S. 35 is known as the Clove Valley School, the adjacent playground's name…

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During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Europeans began to adopt building features of Ancient Rome. The buildings they constructed are today described as being of Romanesque Architecture. The most prominent feature used in the style was the semi-circular Roman arch. Other features of Romanesque Architecture include barrel vaults, porticoes, and heavy walls without much fenestration.


Germany saw a revival of the Romanesque style during the mid-1800s. By the latter part of the century, the Romanesque Revival style spread to the United States, where it was used in designing many buildings. The architectural style incorporated some features of Romanesque-style buildings, such as the heavy walls and the constant use of the Roman arch.  The Revival style…

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crimson_beach_400In the first half of the twentieth century, it was rare to find an architect who had never heard of Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright had made a name for himself by developing new styles of housing, including the Prairie style and the Organic style.  He was known for his practical house designs and for his love of manufactured homes. After the Great Depression, he realized that what people needed were affordable homes. By the 1950s, he had teamed up with Marshall Erdman, a house manufacturer, to create a series of affordable prefabricated homes which would cater to middle-class Americans.


The homes created by Wright and Erdman became known as the Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses. They had two different designs which were quite similar.  The first…

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gothic_388Gothic architecture was popular in Europe during the Middle Ages-specifically between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. It is best known for its use in churches and cathedrals. Prominent features of Gothic-style buildings included flying buttresses and pointed arches.

By the middle of the eighteenth century, a revival of the Gothic architectural style began in England. Roughly one century later, the style had spread to the United States, where it became quite popular in housing construction. Like its medieval counterpart, Gothic Revival architecture was common in the construction of religious buildings, as well.

There are many distinguishable features of Gothic Revival-style architecture. A number of different types of windows can be found on…

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The Arts and Crafts Movement began in Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century. It was initiated in an attempt to promote craftsmanship and to steer people away from cookie-cutter arts. The Arts and Crafts Movement was introduced to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Americans based their creations off of the European models, establishing their own "American Craftsman" style, a term often applied to the architecture of buildings being constructed at the time.

The Craftsman style flourished as a variant of the Bungalow, a practical, one-story home. Craftsman-style houses share some features of Bungalows, such as the low-pitched gable roof and the porches with square columns. There are many other features…

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saltbox_Style Home Staten IslandWhen the English Puritans settled in America during the first half of the seventeenth century, they brought with them the architectural styles of England. Their homes and meetinghouses would be constructed in what is now known as the English Colonial style of architecture. These homes, along with their variations, were constructed until the mid-1850s.

The Saltbox style of architecture began as a variant of the English Colonial style around 1650. By looking at the main façade of the house, you will think that it is just a normal English Colonial-style house. It has all the same features here, such as the symmetrical fenestration and central chimney. Once you get to the rear of the house, though, you will find that it is very different from your…

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Staten Island bungalow_430The British Raj began to control India in 1858. While in India, members of this governance would often stay in banglas, which were simply single-family homes in Bengal. Members of the government grew quite fond of these houses and brought the style with them when they would retire and return to the United Kingdom. Soon, the term "bungalow" began to be used to describe this new type of housing for the British.

In India, the bangla often had more than one story. When the British adopted the style, they created houses that had only one story, though some had an additional half-story. These are the bungalows you will find throughout America today. The most prominent features of Bungalow-style homes are their verandahs or porches, which often have square,…

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winchester_aveThe construction of Raised Ranches or began around the same time as its parent style, the Ranch. This was around the mid-twentieth century, when the need for practicality was evident. Much of the Raised Ranch style is the same as the ordinary Ranch style, though there are a few obvious features which make Raised Ranch-style houses distinguishable among ordinary Ranch-style houses. The most similar feature of the two home styles is all of the homes living quarters exist on one floor. Consequently, the homes bedrooms, kitchens, full bath living and dining room are all accessible on a single level.

The biggest difference between the two styles of housing is that the roof is raised on a Raised Ranch-style house. This means that instead of the single…

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front-evergreenThe construction of Ranch-style houses began in the 1920s.This architectural style emerged as a variant of the Bungalow, a single- or one-and-a-half-story house with a verandah. The Ranch seems to be a simplification of the Bungalow, though it was made to be a convenient house. While some Ranches do have front porches, many are just simple, one-story houses with an attached garage.

Ranches have many distinct features, though some may lack certain features that others may possess. The shape of a Ranch-style house can be rectangular, L-shaped, or U-shaped. The exterior is often constructed in either wood or brick and the only embellishments usually found on the outside are decorative shutters. The low roof of a Ranch is often gabled, though some have hipped…

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