Prodigy Real Estate - SI NY Real Estate Blog - Points of Interest

Landmark: The Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House in Old Town, Staten Island

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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Landmark: Asbury Methodist Church in New Springville, Staten Island

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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Huguenot Ponds Park: Huguenot, Staten Island

Before the mid-nineteenth century the neighborhood of Huguenot was originally known as Bloomingview.  Huguenot got its name from the many Huguenots, members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France that had moved to the area.  The Huguenots were being prosecuted in France for not converting to Catholicism during the mid-to-late seventeenth century, so many of them fled to America.

By 1851, the Huguenots had established and built their first church in Bloomingview, called "The Brown Church" or "The Church of the Huguenots".  The church had caught on fire in 1918 and was rebuilt on the site that it sits on now, in 1924.  Today, this church is a New York City Landmark and is known as The Reformed Church of Huguenot Park.

By the mid-to-late 1800s,…

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Kingdom Pond Park: Huguenot, Staten Island a passive park.

The neighborhood of Huguenot began to be established in the middle of the seventeenth century.  At this time, the area was known as Bloomingview. Pierre Billiou and his wife Francoise were some of the first Huguenots to settle on Staten Island. Huguenots were people that were a part of the Protestant Reformed Church of France.  At that time, their people were being prosecuted for not converting to Catholicism and those who were lucky enough fled their homeland for America.

By 1849, there were many Huguenots living in Bloomingview and, thanks to religious freedom, the Church of the Huguenots was established. Just two years later, the church was built and was known as "The Brown Church" or "The Church of the Huguenots".  By 1918, the church had caught on…

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Ingram Woods: Westerleigh, Staten Island

The Staten Island neighborhood of Westerleigh became a popular place a couple of decades after the formation of the Prohibition Party in 1869.  Around the late 1880s, twenty-five acres of the current Westerleigh neighborhood became home to the National Prohibition Campground Association, also known as Prohibition Park.  Prohibition Park started off as a campground with some recreational facilities for its visitors.  Soon, people began to settle there instead of having to visit.

In the early twentieth century, the neighborhood of Westerleigh started to become more a residential area.  As a result, the National Prohibition Campground Association started building homes and transferred some of their land to the City of New York.  By the mid-1900s,…

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Last Chance Pond Park: Dongan Hills, Staten Island

With the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, many residents of Brooklyn and other nearby places began to move to Staten Island.  With the increase of Staten Island's population and housing, a decrease occurred in Staten Island's undeveloped areas and many of the natural habitats found in the borough began to disappear.  Many of Staten Island's current parks would today be plots of land taken up by houses and buildings if it were not for the residents of Staten Island who did not want to see the beautiful natural habitats destroyed.  If you look into the past of Staten Island's parks, you will hear many stories about how members of the communities worked together to preserve these places.  One such story is that of Last Chance Pond Park, which…

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Maple Woods: Park Hill, Staten Island

On the North Shore of Staten Island, you can find Maple Woods. This is a woodland park that is in a community sometimes referred to as Park Hill. Maple Woods is bound by Richmond Road and is between the streets of Steuben Street, Rhine Avenue, and Pierce Street.

In 1938, the State of New York had given the City of New York the parcel of land that makes up Maple Woods, but on a contingent basis. The City of New York had to use this land for either a park or a playground. From the time the City of New York had received this land up until 1991, the site was left to its own devices. Weeds and vines started to take over the land, while people began to dump items in the park, and it started to become what looked like a vacant lot. In 1991, the New York City…

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Sobel Court Park: Park Hill, Staten Island

On Staten Island's North Shore, you can find the neighborhood of Park Hill. This neighborhood is close to the eastern shore, right above the Staten Island Expressway.  Within the neighborhood are a few parks-one of which is Sobel Court Park.

Before this neighborhood was known as Park Hill, it was called Fox Hills after Lewis Henry Meyer's estate. Lewis H. Meyer was one of the founders of the Staten Island Savings Bank and was their President for ten years. When he bought his property on Staten Island, he built a nice estate that he named Fox Hill Manor, after his love of fox hunting.

Sobel Court Park stretches between Vanderbilt Avenue and Bowen Street and is located between Roff Street and Sobel Court. Prior to this land becoming a park, Mayor…

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Graniteville Quarry Park: Graniteville, Staten Island: Named after old neighborhood quarry.

On the North Shore of Staten Island, there is the neighborhood of Graniteville. This neighborhood received its name from the quarry of granite that ran through the area. Between the mid-to-late 1800s, the granite was quarried for the building of roads and walls on Staten Island. It was not until years later that it was found that the quarry was actually made up of diabase, and not granite.

After the quarry was closed, excess dirt from where new houses were being built was filled into the quarry and it turned into a vacant lot. In the mid-1970s, Dr. Alan Benimoff, a current professor at the College of Staten Island, was surveying the land and found a rare stone within the diabase. This stone is called trondhjemite and is only known to be found in Wales…

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Blueberry Park: Eltingville, Staten Island part of Atlantic Village

Prior to the building of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, Staten Island was more of a vacation area than anything else.  Once the bridge was opened in 1964, many people started to move to Staten Island on a permanent basis. As more 
people wanted to move onto the Island, there were more houses being built, as well as housing communities.

On the South Shore of Staten Island, in the neighborhood of Eltingville, one of the housing communities that was built after the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was Atlantic Village. This community is located right off of Arden Avenue and has nice views of the Raritan Bay, being that the houses are across the street from it.  This housing community was built between the mid-1970s and the late 1980s.

When creating…

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