Staten Island

By JOE SCHIAFFINO Special to Forgotten New York Thorwald Heyerdahl built his stone house atop this hill in 1861-62 when he signed a five year lease indenture with property owner…

Turning once again to this Rossville area Hagstrom map from 1949, I noticed the “Valley Forge” notation on the upper right. I hadn’t heard “Valley Forge” applied to a Staten…

After wandering around northern Rossville in June 2014 I decided to probe south, curious about the enclave known as Sandy Ground, to see if anything remained of it (details on…

Visiting Staten Island, of course, is a provocative act. I’ll paraphrase the opening line to my introduction to the ForgottenBook and say that if you’re a New Yorker not from…

I return to Port Richmond frequently — it’s New York City’s version of one of those innumerable small towns around the country whose downtowns have been Wal-Marted to death, as…

One of the unwritten pop music stories in New York City is the role played by everyday, humdrum neighborhood theaters and venues as rock and roll hotbeds. Some of the…

  From the FNY archives comes this pair of early 20th-Century views of the Staten Island Lighthouse, which is still operated by the Coast Guard as an aid to navigation…

In January 2014 I was looking for cemeteries in Staten Island (like Queens, the borough has several small and unfamiliar ones) and boarded the John J. Marchi ferryboat for the ride…

Here’s a shot from long ago in Prince’s Bay, Staten Island, where I was bumbling along with a camera in 1998 when I spotted a pair of Staten Island classic…

I plan on spending more time in Staten Island in late fall and winter. Like the Bronx, there are unplumbed treasure troves of Forgotten-ania to be found there. Happily, the…

Hamilton Park, a section of New Brighton, Staten Island, is one of the city’s most unsung areas featuring breathtaking architecture. With the leaves falling, I’ll soon visit again to take…

Thousands of NYC streets are named for people. Some are presidents — likely the more famed ones such as Washington or Lincoln. Often the practice is to develop a group…