In 1867, Czechoslovakian Moritz Glauber immigrated to New York. After settling in Colorado and opening his own department store, he removed to Tennessee with his new wife, Elsa.  By 1910, the couple was living on Staten Island, where they owned a 35-acre estate.  In 1944, while living alone in New York City, Moritz Glauber passed awaysports_park_mini_golf_400.  On January 17, 1958, the estate was acquired by the City of New York, who transferred the site to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Soon afterward, a little less than five acres were transformed into a park.

For about three decades, the park of which we speak was comprised of nothing more than vegetation.  This all changed on February 26 of 1991, when the New York City Department of Parks and…

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Bayview Terrace Park is located in the neighborhood of Annadale. It is made up of about two acres of land between Holdridge Avenue and Bennett Place, below Bayview Terrace and next to the ocean. There used to be a nice beach located next to the park that has submerged under water since the late 1950s. Now the park overlooks what is lef
t of the beach with a 17-foot drop down to it.

Bayview Terrace Park is a garden area created by the local gardeners of the area. Before the local gardeners came along to fix it up, the land used to be a city-owned lot filled with trash. In 1991, the local gardeners leased the land from the City to start cleaning it up. With rising rent prices, they went to Community Board 3 to get their help to transfer the lot to the…

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Veterans Park is on the North Shore of Staten Island in the neighborhood of Port Richmond. It is fully bordered by streets on three sides, and by a school and a street on the fourth side. Veterans Park is located between the veterans_park_400streets of Park Avenue, Heberton Avenue, Bennett Street and Vreeland Street, as well as by Public School 20.

Veterans Park is one of the oldest parks located on Staten Island. When Staten Island was consolidated into the Greater New York in 1898 there were only three parks on Staten Island. These three parks were Westerleigh Park, Port Richmond Park (now known as Veterans Park), and Washington Square (now known as Tappen Park). Veterans Park was originally designated in 1836, while the community of Port Richmond was being planned…

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In 1909, the City of New York acquired 105 acres of land in the neighborhood of Willowbrook. Twenty years later, this area of land was assigned to the Parks Department. In 1939 and 1940, land was purchased for the carosel_at_willowbrook_park_400Willowbrook Parkway. This parkway would have extended from Great Kills Park to the Bayonne Bridge; however, it was never built, and so the land instead went to Willowbrook Park, making it a whopping 164-acre park. Today, the park consists of over 200 acres in the neighborhood which bears the same name. It is located to the east of Richmond Avenue, between the streets of Ashworth Avenue and Victory Boulevard. The eastern boundary of the park is the 240-acre campus for the College of Staten Island.

One of the most popular Greenbelt parks of…

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It's hard to find a person in America who has never heard of the World War One.  As a refresher course, I'll give you a little back story.  It all began on the 28th of July in 1914, when Austria-Hungary had invaded Serbia.  Soon, many other countries became involved and eventually, an enormous war broke out.  For roughly two and a half years, the United States stayed neutral during the war-even after Germany sank the Lusitania, a British ocean liner which was cwhite_playground_5_400arrying 128 Americans.  During the beginning of 1917, however, Germany sank several American ships heading toward Britain, knowing full well that it would result in the United States entering the war.  As you can imagine, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Up until 1918, roughly three…

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Von Briesen Park, also known as Arthur Von Briesen Park, is located on the northeastern shore of Staten Island. The park is bordered by Bay Street and North Road. Von Briesen Park extends outward from Bay Street into The Navon_briesen_park_bridge_400rrows. This park contains about ten acres of park-land and about two acres of water. Von Briesen Park was named after Arthur Von Briesen (1843 – 1920). This park used to hold Arthur Von Briesen's estate before he passed away. He bought this property in 1901 as a summer home, which he named "Gernda", a German term for "wishing to be there".

Arthur Von Briesen was a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1858. He studied law up until the start of the Civil War when he enlisted in the First New York Volunteers. In the war he…

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From the beginning of the American Civil War, Major General Richard Delafield was in charge of the defenses at New York Harbor. By 1864, he became the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, a title he held until his walker_park3_400retirement in 1866.  At the time of his retirement, he resided at his estate on Bard Avenue, which was located in northeastern West Brighton, a community known as Livingston. Major General Richard Delafield passed away on November 5, 1873.

In 1872, one year prior to Major General Richard Delafield's passing, the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club was formed. The club had originally made their home at Camp Washington, which was a part of the current St. George neighborhood. In 1874, two years after having been establishing, the…

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The history of Westerleigh Park has much to do with the history of the entire neighborhood of Westerleigh, itself.  It all began with the American Civil War, which took place during the 1860s. If you learned about American history in grade school, there's a high chance you were taught of the American Civil War. During those schools days, you probably awesterleigh_park_1_400lso learned about causes and effects. The American Civil War, as you may know, had many of both.  One effect about which you may not have learned at such a young age was the fact that this specific war led to excessive alcoholism.

Once people began to realize how horrible the effects of the beverage actually were, concerned citizens decided to do something about it.  In 1869, just four years after the…

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On January 1, 1898, the City of Greater New York was created. New York City consisted of Bronx County, Kings tappen_park_1_400County, New York County, Queens County, and Richmond County. At the time, there were just three public parks located in Richmond County, or Staten Island. These were Port Richmond Park, Washington Square Park, and Westerleigh Park. During the late eighteenth century, Staten Island consisted of four towns: Castleton, Northfield, Southfield, and Westfield.  By the middle of the nineteenth century, portions of both Castleton and Southfield were merged to create Middletown.  Throughout the years, these towns were comprised of smaller villages.  At first, the village known as Stapleton was located in the town of Southfield.  By the time Middletown was…

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Quite often in Staten Island, you will find parks and neighboring streets bearing the same name. This happened in the neighborhood of Great Kills, just above the Staten Island Railroad line. In 1982, roughly twenty-three acres of land were acquired by the City of New York. This land, which is bounded by the streets of Dewey Avenue to the north, Greaves Avenue to the west, and Evergreen Street to the east, was put under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Owing to its location, it was named Evergreen Park.

Soon, the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences took over the park, after coming to an agreement with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Until the end of the decade, the Staten Island…

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