Located to the northwest of Harrison Street is the St. Paul’s Avenue–Stapleton Heights Historic District, which was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2004. This district encompasses several lovely churches and 92 freestanding houses, plus smaller ancillary structures, which were largely constructed for prominent local businessmen and politicians. Built as a more wealthy enclave than Harrison Street, the houses are more elaborate in their size, massing and architectural detail. The neighborhood has long been one of Staten Island’s most prestigious places to live. Running through the district is St. Paul’s Avenue, an impressive stretch of residences that links the historic villages of Tompkinsville and Stapleton. Development in the area began in 1826, when Caleb T. Ward purchased 250 acres, including the entirety of the historic district. Ward laid out streets and building lots in 1829. The two earliest houses in the district are 172 and 204 St. Paul’s Avenue, which date to the mid-1830s. The former was originally the rectory for the first St. Paul’s Church (demolished 1870) and the latter was a private home built by James Creighton. Both were designed in the Greek Revival style, which was very fashionable at that time.

While New York City is certainly best known for its towering skyscrapers and classy historic districts, its earliest monuments of stone are just that: stone. The geologic landscape of the city was formed between 20,000 and 18,000 years ago with the movement of the Wisconsin Ice Sheet down from Canada. The rock and debris deposited from the ice sheet, as well as the valleys it deepened, bedrock it smoothed and glacial grooves it left, formed the landscape of the city that began to grow in the colonial era. In some cases the rocks have been moved or crumbled in the name of urban development. But some of this geologic history can still be seen within the urban environment. This collection highlights some of the more well-known geologic features.

"Hero Park was dedicated in 1920 to the martyrs of the World War and a bronze tablet on Sugar Loaf Rock bears the names of Staten Islanders who died in the war, June 23, 1937."

364 Van Duzer Street CLIENT: Robert M. Hazard ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1835 STYLE: Greek Revival This frame house, built in modified Greek Revival style, is one of the last remaining examples in the area. The most striking feature of this house is the stately tetrastyle portico with its Doric columns rising two stories to an entablature below an overhanging spring-eave. The use of a spring-eave on a Greek Revival house, rather than a triangular gable, is unusual and is more characteristic of the so-called Dutch Colonial style.

Hero Park, Staten Island.