Curtis High School ca. 1905 Curtis High School (1902-1904) was the first public building constructed on the Island after consolidation. The school was sited on a hill with Harbor views and was designed in the neo-Gothic style by Superintendent of School Buildings C.B.J. Snyder. The school was named after Staten Island resident George William Curtis, the editor of Putnam’s Magazine and Harper’s Weekly, and a colleague and friend of landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Andrew Jackson Downing.

The building in the foreground was likely built prior to 1900 and by 1928 housed the Staten Island Women's Club. This institution was organized by the wives of Staten Island's most prominent citizens. For nearly 40 years ending in 2013, the structure was home to William Monica and Son, a violin seller and restoration company. The large building in the background is the former St. Peter's Catholic School, now The Harbor View School, P.S. 59.

Columbia Hall, 1956. In character with the nearby Sailors' Snug Harbor, this Greek Revival building is a good example of the free manner in which a seemingly symmetrical building could conceal an asymmetrically planned house. The hexastyle Doric portico, though it reveals only one story, actually masks a second story behind the pediment.

The Castleton Hotel was constructed in 1889, the last in a series of grand hotels built on St. Marks Place. This hotel replaced another hotel on the plot called the St. Marks Hotel. Both businesses boomed, particularly during the summer months (though there was rampant speculation that even despite the popularity, the Hotel Castleton never turned a profit). On November 12, 1907, while closed for the winter months, the five and a half story wood-frame building caught fire. The New York Times wrote, "The hotel might have been built of paper from the rapidity with which the flames spread." Given the hotel's location high on a bluff overlooking the harbor, the conflagration was visible at a great distance. It is said that it could be seen as from "far uptown" (whatever that meant in 1907). After many hours, and a valiant but largely thwarted efforts by firefighters, the blaze burned itself out. Nothing was left of the hotel but the brick chimneys.

Curtis High School Hamilton Avenue & St. Mark’s Place, Staten Island 1904 As part of a plan to build a high school in each of the outlaying boroughs, Curtis High School was designed by C.B.J Snyder and built between 1902 and 1904. As the first high school on Staten Island, it is named in honor of prominent writer George W. Curtis, who settled on Staten Island circa 1850. The building is of buff colored brick, terra cotta, and limestone and its center square tower is an impressive example of neo-Gothic architecture. A notable alumnus is Amy Vanderbilt, author of the bests selling Complete Book of Etiquette (1952). Curtis High School was designated a New York City Landmark in 1982.

The C.B.J. Snyder-designed Curtis High School was completed in 1904 and was the first high school on the island, as well as the first civic building completed after Staten Island became part of the consolidated New York City in 1898. Famous alumni include children's book author Lois Lowry (The Giver) and Wu-Tang Clan member RZA who referenced the school in the song "Sunshower"-- "Old Earth got nervous, walked me to Shaolin, sent me to Curtis."