The view from the top of the seven-story building at 30 Bay Street gave a full view of the large wooden residences that lined Central Avenue in 1929. The homes on this street were demolished at some unknown time during the 20th century. The new building now located at 26 Central Avenue, opened in 2014, is the Richmond County Supreme Court. Its construction took more than a decade with problems and delays, including the 2001 discovery of 19th century human remains, originally interred in a cemetery that once occupied the land.

The 19th century home that formerly occupied this plot of land was owned by a succession of prominent Staten Island citizens. It was supposedly owed, at one point, by William T. Davis, a naturalist, entomologist, and historian, who, along with fellow writers and scientists, established the Natural Science Association of Staten Island in 1881. That institution is the direct predecessor of the current Staten Island Museum. Though largely self-taught Davis wrote books on the natural history and people of Staten Island and was an internationally respected expert on cicadas.

Joseph H. Lyons Pool CLIENT: City of New York, Department of Parks and Recreation ARCHITECT: Joseph L. Hautman DATE: 1934-36 STYLE: Art Moderne, Swimming Pool The Tompkinsville (Joseph H. Lyons) Pool is one of a group of eleven immense outdoor swimming pools opened in the summer of 1936 in a series of grand ceremonies presided over by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Park Commissioner Robert Moses. All of the pools were constructed largely with funding provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of many New Deal agencies created in the 1930s to address the Great Depression. Designed by Joseph L. Hautman, the Tompkinsville Pool is set on a small swath of land on the east shore of Staten Island between the Staten Island Railway track and the waterfront. The streamlined and curvilinear form of the Art Moderne-style bath house met the low-cost material criteria stipulated by the WPA while still presenting an attractive design.

340-348 St. Marks Place, 1937. These two lovely Victorian wood homes were part of a grouping of such buildings on St. Marks Place in St. George. Only a few of the larger homes remain (including the home at no. 362).

Staten Island Borough Hall CLIENT: Borough of Staten Island ARCHITECT: Carrere & Hastings DATE: 1903-06 STYLE: French Renaissance Borough Hall, Staten Island’s grandest civic monument, was designed in 1903, five years after the consolidation of Greater New York. The magnificent structure was the work of Carerre & Hastings, one of the leading architectural firms in New York at the turn of the century. The building is a testament to the belief of the firm’ s partners that French Renaissance design, as adapted to American needs, was the most appropriate style for that period. The brick and stone building, dramatically sited on a hill above the St. George terminal, is visible to all who arrive in Staten Island by ferry, and its tall clocktower is a welcoming beacon to resident and visitor alike.

In its early history, New York City was home to an array of small burial sites. In the early 19th century, Manhattan was rapidly transforming into a bustling city, leading to the 1830 passage of an ordinance forbidding burials south of Canal Street. Small churchyard, private and non-sectarian cemeteries continued to be built north of Canal Street until 1847, when the New York State Rural Cemeteries Act was passed to encourage the construction of suburban cemeteries. These Romantic-style cemeteries were fashionable in the mid-19th century as retreats from city life, with pleasant landscaping and air- purifying trees. These cemeteries functioned not only as places of burial, but also as the precursor to major public parks. Two of New York City’s grandest cemeteries were designed and built in this style in what were then rural sections of the city: Green-Wood in Brooklyn (established in 1838) and Woodlawn in The Bronx (established in 1865). After the Rural Cemeteries Act was passed, the greatest concentration of suburban cemeteries was built on the border of Brooklyn and Queens in Newtown Township, dubbed the “city of the dead.” In fact, by 1893, roughly 1.5 million people had been buried in 24 cemeteries of varying religious and non-religious affiliations, covering 2,000 acres of land there. In addition to being on the outskirts of the city, Newtown and the surrounding area were also attractive for the development of cemeteries since a provision of the Rural Cemeteries Act mandated that individual cemetery organizations be limited to no more than 250 acres in one county. Thus, this rule was circumvented through the purchase of larger parcels that stood within both Brooklyn (Kings County) and Queens (Queens County). While much of the city was rapidly expanding and many of its small burial grounds were transformed for other uses, especially in Manhattan, Staten Island remained largely rural. This relative lack of development pressure allowed Staten Island’s small burial grounds to remain. From the 17th century well into the 19th century, family farms occupied much of Staten Island, especially in the south. Within the confines of these farms, “Homestead Graves” or family burial grounds were established. These were some of the first community cemeteries on Staten Island, and many of today’s cemeteries are still named after the families whose homestead burial grounds were sold for public use. In Staten Island, cemeteries did not discriminate against different races and cultures. At Fountain Cemetery, for example, members of many prosperous African American families, some born into slavery on Staten Island and subsequently freed, are buried there. Another unique aspect of many Staten Island cemeteries is the large amount of granite grave stones, which were quarried in the aptly named Graniteville neighborhood. Many of the 13 accessible and four inaccessible cemeteries covered in this story became abandoned, vandalized or used as dumping grounds in the 20th century. Founded in 1981, the Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island (FACSI) has restored and maintained 11 of these hallowed spaces throughout the borough to date. This vital work includes landscaping and tree work, restoration and placement of grave markers and the production and installation of signage to identify the cemeteries. The organization also keeps archives of photographs, burial lists and cemetery documents, as well as transcribes obscure burial records and makes them available to the public via the Richmond County Genealogy website. In addition to respecting the lives of those buried at these sites, FACSI’s important work allows these cemeteries to reclaim and maintain their rightful place as a unique, beautiful and historically significant part of Staten Island’s physical fabric.

Staten Island Borough Hall, ca. 1907. Designed by Carrère & Hastings (John Carrère was Staten Island resident for some time) and completed in 1906, the Staten Island Borough Hall was one of a number of Staten Island civic buildings constructed by the firm. The building is a three- story French Renaissance style brick building topped by large two-story mansard roof. The government of Staten Island, once located at Richmond Town, was moved to St. George after the consolidation of Greater New York City in 1898. In 1940, Frederick Charles Stahr, a WPA artist, created a series of murals and reliefs for the grand marble lobby that depict the history of Staten Island.

Joseph H. Lyons Pool, August 28, 1937. The only WPA pool on Staten Island and the fourth pool to open in the summer of 1936, the Joseph H. Lyons Pool (also called the Tompkinsville Pool) sits on a plot of land on the waterfront. The location of space directly impacted the Joseph L. Hautman-designed facilities. The long L-shaped structures attempted to block out the sounds of the nearby railroad, while creating excellent views out towards New York Harbor. Unlike most of the other pools, these facilities occupy nearly the entirety of the lot and are not surrounded by additional park land. Beginning in 1982 a $6.7 million renovation was undertaken and the pool was rededicated in the summer of 1986, 50 years after it was first opened.

The Corn Exchange Bank and the New York Trust & Mortgage buildings, 1930. Designed by Horace Luckman, and completed in 1928, the building first housed the American Trust Company and the New York Title and Mortgage Company. The building was designed to include a large illuminated sign on the roof which featured eight foot high letters and a metal framing that spanned 30 by 50 feet.

199 St. Pauls Avenue, October 22, 1926. According to the photographer's notes for this photograph, this home was, for a time, the residence of Richard Adams Locke. Locke, a British journalist who wrote for the New York newspaper The Sun, was said to be the author of a newspaper hoax in 1835. Called the "Great Moon Hoax," a series of articles which described the discovery of an animal civilization on the moon by astronomer Sir John Herschel. Herschel supposedly observed bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers, bat-like winged humanoids, and the structures they had built. Herschal was not involved in the hoax and in fact did not know until longer after the fact that these discoveries were attributed to him. Likely undertaken to boost the circulation of the newspaper, the hoax was an undeniable success, eclipsing a similar hoax story published by Edgar Allan Poe a few months earlier, and launching The Sun into dramatically increased distribution and reputation.

St. George Branch, NYPL, date unknown. The St. George Library was designed by Carrère and Hastings and completed in 1907. It is the largest of the four Staten Island Carnegie libraries, reflecting the importance and vibrancy of the surrounding neighborhood which is home to the Staten Island Borough Hall and the ferry terminal. While the original design was a rectangular floor plan (as seen in this undated image), a large addition perpendicular to the original building was constructed in 1952.