Jones Woods Park, New Brighton Staten Island
Posted by Anthony Licciardello on
Many of Staten Island's prominent families made their homes here during the nineteenth century. One of these families was the Jones family, most of whose descendants came to New York from Philadelphia. The most 
prominent member of this family on Staten Island was Shipley Jones, who was born in the middle of the nineteenth century. He was born into a wealthy family who created a large estate for him in the current neighborhood of New Brighton. Originally, the estate was owned by his parents, both of whom died prior to the first years of the twentieth century. At that time, the estate was passed down to Shipley Jones, who owned it for a number of years before he too passed away.
Shipley Jones graduated from Columbia College in 1869 with a Bachelor of…
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school was initially built, a schoolyard and tot lot were constructed next to the building, above Arnold Street and to the east of Clyde Place. Not long after the construction of the schoolyard and tot lot, a fire destroyed the school building and it was replaced by Public School 31, which was constructed further northeast in the neighborhood. Although the school was no longer in use, maintenance of the tot lot was taken up by the current Cottages Hill Tenant Association, a community group.
moved to 60 Foote Avenue, in the Grymes Hill neighborhood. Around that time, an adjacent plot of land was acquired by New York City. This less-than-two-acres parcel was transferred to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, as well as the New York City Board of Education.
For centuries, ice harvesting had been a big part of the winter season.During the 19th century, the harvesting of Silver Lake's ice was very important.During the remaining seasons, the lake was used for swimming, boating, fishing, and ice skating.The area also held 1897's National Skating Amateur Championship races.Around 1911, refrigerators were made available to the United States, rendering the industry of ice harvesting useless.In 1917, Silver Lake was drained to be used as a reservoir. It was later replaced by underground storage tanks.
efore this lot was a playground, New York City used this land as a reservoir from 1909 to 1935. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation took over this property in 1935 and filled the reservoir with dirt. This created a playing field for the local neighborhood. At this point in time, the park was named after William Winter.
One of the parks located inside the neighborhood of St. George is Lieutenant Nicholas Lia Playground. This park is bordered by the streets of Belmont Place, Wall Street, and St. Mark's Place.
Board of Estimate. However, by August 25 of that same year, the New York City Board of Education reclaimed the site so that it could be used to store furniture. Being too small to store furniture while still operating as a school, the school closed down. It wasn't until the middle of the twentieth century that a new building was constructed for P.S. 31. This building, however, was located quite far from the original site. Today, it is located at the northern tip of Staten Island, in the neighborhood of St. George.
retirement 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.