I have visited Rosebank often during over two decades of Forgotten NY. It’s is a pleasant village in southeast Staten Island with tree-lined streets filled with venerable old homes that are gradually giving way to new construction, especially along the old right-of-way of the South Shore Branch of the old Staten Island Rapid Transit. Beautiful views of the Narrows, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, can be glimpsed from Alice Austen and Arthur Von Briesen Parks. Rosebank is anchored by the campanile of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, built in 1857 at 1101 Bay Street at St. Mary’s Avenue, and the slim spire of St. John’s Episcopal Church built in 1871 at 1331 Bay opposite Belair Road. Rosebank, primarily an Italian neighborhood in the early 21st Century, has been home to pioneering photographer Alice Austen and Italian unifier Giuseppe Garibaldi.
In 2020, St. Mary’s was desanctified as the result of poor patronage. The parish merged with St. Joseph’s R.C. Church in Rosebank and Immaculate Conception R.C. Church in Stapleton. Masses and other liturgical ceremonies are no longer held in the building and all sacred objects, such as altars and baptisimal fonts, had to be removed. Unlike St. John’s down the block, the building isn’t under Landmarks protection. The building has been unused since 2015.
Bay Street, meanwhile, is the main route directly connecting St. George Ferry with Fort Wadsworth, now a public recreation area. Formerly, it was one of Rosebank’s “state avenues” along with Maryland and Virginia Avenue, and Hylan Boulevard, formerly Pennsylvania Avenue. Bay Street was New York Avenue and still is, within Fort Wadsworth.
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10/13/23