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, Westerleigh had grown to a nice-sized community. Around this same time, the City of New York began to create city-owned public parks for the residents of the many communities.
In Westerleigh, just above the Staten Island Expressway, there is a woodland park known as Ingram Woods. This park is bound by Purdy Avenue to the north, North Gannon Avenue to the south, Warwick Avenue to the west, and Ingram Avenue to the east. When the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation obtained this land for park use, they decided to leave it as a natural area. Once established, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation named this area Ingram Woods, most likely after the street that bounds it to the east.
Ingram Woods is smaller than most parks you will find on Staten Island, but it is among the wonderful passive parks in the borough. The park is only about four acres in size and is comprised of mostly woods. Within the park, you can find a trail and a garden, which sits along Warwick Avenue at the corner of Purdy Avenue.
Posted by Anthony Licciardello on
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