Toad Hall Playground, Manor Heights Staten Island
Posted by Anthony Licciardello on
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Moritz Glauber immigrated to the United States from Czechoslovakia. ByÂ
the early part of the twentieth century, he had established a 35-acre estate near the center of Staten Island.Glauber passed away in 1944 and the estate soon came into the hands of the City of New York. By the end of the decade, almost half of the estate was assigned to the New York City Housing Authority, who planned to use the land for a public housing project. This project, which consisted of 502 apartments, was completed in 1950 as the Todt Hill Houses.
While the name of the Todt Hill Houses complex refers to Staten Island's neighborhood of Todt Hill, the area is commonly associated with the community of Manor Heights. The housing…
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Photo© Conferance House Park, Tottenville Staten Island
remaining quarter of land was acquired by the City of New York to be established as a park. The school opened to the public in 1965 at 1270 Huguenot Avenue with the park following it just two short years later.
During the middle of the twentieth century, the City of New York began acquiring land for the current Staten Island Expressway. In 1958, a parcel of a little over thirteen acres of land was acquired in the neighborhood of Bulls Head. Grass was planted on the parcel, but nothing else was done to the site for decades. It is bounded to the north by the Staten Island Expressway, to the south by Lamberts Lane, to the west by Fahy Ave., and to the east by a ramp connecting to the Staten Island Expressway.
the property of the current park. This house was demolished just a few years later, however. Up until 2010, the land was left to its own devices and a gate protected the wildlife within.
State Park Preserve. This park was the first and only state park preserve to be established in New York City, having been set up in 1976. In 1980, Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve opened to the public. It is under the jurisdiction of the State of New York Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.
Staten Island's past. Nonetheless, the two were included in what soon became Alice Austen Park, with the addresses of the homes being 2 Hylan Boulevard and 30 Hylan Boulevard.
In the middle of the twentieth century, a school building was constructed in the neighborhood of West Brighton. On April 28, 1960, the school was named for Anning Smith Prall. Born on Staten Island, Prall served as president of the New York City Board of Education for three terms in 1919, 1920, and 1921. Anning Smith Prall also served as a member of the House of Representatives and president of the Federal Communications Commission in later years. Intermediate School 27 was named for him twenty-three years after his death.
In 1931, a school was constructed in the neighborhood of Grasmere at the corner of Targee Street and Naples Street. In 1953 and 1955, the City of New York acquired two plots of land to the east of the school, with Stanwich Street being their eastern boundary. Since the school first opened, these two parcels of land had been used as a play area for local residents, who named it as Concord Playground. Once the two parcels were acquired by the city, a playground was constructed. It opened in 1965 under the jurisdiction of both the New York City Board of Education and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time of its opening, it became known as P.S. 48 Playground, for the adjacent school.
known as the Neck Creek Marsh, named after the creek that runs through it.
After the First World War, many World War One memorials began to be placed all over New York City to commemorate those who fought in the war. In the early 1920s, residents of the southern portion of Staten Island-then known as the Fifth Ward-raised money to have a sculpture built for their community. George Thomas Brewster, a resident of Tottenville, sculpted an $8,500 statue based on the Louvre's Winged Victory of Samothrace.