If you’d like to see the oldest building still standing on Staten Island, you won’t find it in Historic Richmondtown. It’s actually further north, in the Mid-Island section of Staten Island. Just below Todt Hill, in the Dongan Hills community, you will find the Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House, standing at 1476 Richmond Road. This building, which had served as a home for many generations, is one of the oldest buildings in New York, having been built in the early 1660s.

The first section of the home was erected by Pierre Billiou, whose name has been made known on Staten Island not only because of this house, but also because he was among the first permanent settlers on Staten Island. Pierre Billiou left his Amsterdam hometown with his wife in May of 1661…

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The Asbury Methodist Church is one of the many landmarks located on Staten Island. It was named after Francis Asbury, an Englishman who came to America in 1771. Francis Asbury was born in 1745 and had begun his profession as a Methodist preacher by the age of twenty-one. He had volunteered to come to America when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had asked his ministers for volunteers to travel to the Thirteen Colonies in 1771. Francis Asbury was a circuit rider, which means that he did not have one specific church at which he preached. Instead, he had travelled around the thirteen colonies, preaching to all those who wanted to listen.

During the American Revolutionary War, most of the Methodist preachers had left America. Francis Asbury, on the…

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Staten Island's Housing Market grows at a robust pace, only bested by tax credit month of June 2010. However, with higher mortgage interest rates, the housing market is likely to cool off a bit in the following months. 

In the past few months, we saw some pretty incredible numbers in the housing market—and this past month was no different. With the numbers from this past June, we can definitely see an improvement in the market.

First, let’s take a look at the monthly sales. Two hundred and ninety-five homes were sold this past June. This is astonishing, since it’s an increase of almost fourteen percent from May to June, and an increase of about nineteen percent from the prior year. It seems like we’re quoting ourselves month after month, but really,…

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