How Well Do You Know Staten Island Landmarks?

How well do you know the designated buildings and sites of Staten Island? Find out with this quiz!

 

What seventeenth-century stone manor house was the location of a failed negotiation in 1776 between Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge, representing disgruntled colonists, and the Admiral of the British Fleet -- which ultimately did not prevent the Revolutionary War?

 

Conference House, so named for the meeting in 1776, was built by Christopher Billopp ca. 1680, nearly a century earlier. A restoration effort undertaken in the 1920s and 1930s led to it becoming a museum. The Historic House Trust site is located in the fittingly named Conference House Park.

Did you know that the Conference House is the southernmost designated landmark in New York City? Have a look around the Conference House here.

 

Staten Island claims one of the oldest elementary school buildings in the United States. What is it called?

 

Located on Arthur Kill Road in Richmond, the Voorleezer’s House was built in 1695, or possibly 1765. It was home to the “voorlezer,” a Dutch word for lay reader and teacher. Part of Historic Richmond Town, this small clapboard structure was designated a NYC landmark in 1969.

 

For recent research, see more information here.

 

 

The Cass House, also known as The Crimson Beech, stands on Lighthouse Hill. Built for William and Catherine Cass in 1958-59, this prefabricated house, an example of Wright’s “Prefab No. 1” house design from 1956, was manufactured in Michigan and assembled under the supervision of Wright’s associate Morton H. Delson. Wright’s Erdman houses were a late-career effort to provide moderate-cost housing with a high level of design quality.

Image: LPC

 

John Merven Carrère lived on Staten Island from 1886 to 1901. In partnership with Thomas Hastings, his prominent architectural firm designed Staten Island Borough Hall during 1904-06 and Richmond County Courthouse in 1913-19, as well as the Tottenville (1903-04) and Port Richmond branches (1904-05) of the New York Public Library, all New York City landmarks.

 

Audre Lorde lived with her family on St. Paul’s Avenue in the St. Paul’s Avenue - Stapleton Heights Historic District from 1972 to 1987. Her neo-Colonial style home was designated a New York City landmark in 2019 in recognition of her significant contributions to history and culture.

Where did a historic iron fence keep retired sailors from taking unauthorized excursions?

 

Hint: The answer also refers to Staten Island's first landmarks.

 

Designed by Frederick Draper, the Iron Fence at Sailor’s Snug Harbor extends for a more than a third of mile along Richmond Terrace. The central part, close to the main buildings, was fabricated in 1841-45. It marks the northern boundary of the complex and was designated a New York City landmark in 1973.

 

Did you know that the Bowling Green Fence (1770) in Lower Manhattan is also a New York City landmark?

 

What Staten Island resident and significant early photographer lived and worked in a picturesque house overlooking the Verrazano Narrows which is now a New York City landmark, house museum, and National Historic Landmark?

 

With unsurpassed views of the Narrows, the Alice Austen House in Rosebank was erected in the first half of the 18^th century and later remodeled in the Gothic Revival style.  Named by her grandfather “Clear Comfort,” she lived in this picturesque house for about eighty years, from 1867 to 1945.  During her lifetime, she produced an estimated 8,000 photographs, including perceptive images of friends, family, and immigrant life. The house was designated a New York City landmark in 1969 and a National Historic Landmark in 1970. In 2017, its National Register listing was amended to recognize the house for its importance to LGBTQ history.

Learn more about the Alice Austen House here.

Staten Island attracted many progressive thinkers in the mid-19^th century. Two landmarks in West New Brighton, the 69 Delafield Place and the George William and Anna Curtis House, were homes of notable reformists and abolitionists. They were located in a progressive enclave named after which prominent abolitionist, eye surgeon, and real estate developer?  

 

Born in Inverness, Scotland, Dr. Samuel MacKenzie Elliot built 22 cottages in the “Elliotville” area, now in West New Brighton, in the 1840s.  His house at 69 Delafield Place was reportedly a stop on the Underground Railroad. Designated a New York City landmark in 1967, the large cellar was designed with a fireplace where meals may have been cooked for those seeking refuge. Notable reformists and abolitionists George William and Anna Curtis worked to address major political issues including slavery, women’s suffrage, civil service reform, and local issues.

The Kreischer Brick Manufacturing Company was located in Charleston (not South Carolina) in southwestern Staten Island from 1855 to the 1920s. NYC landmarks in the neighborhood have close associations to the Kreischer family and its factory, including the Charles Kreischer House, Kreischerville Workers Houses, Saint Peter’s German Evangelical Reformed Church, and the Westfield Township School.

 

Did you know that the primary material used in the various Ridgewood Historic Districts in Queens is Kreischer brick?

 

 

The settlement of “Cocclestown” was established in 1680 and later came to be known as Richmond Town. In 1939, the Staten Island Historical Society started the effort to preserve the Voorlezer’s House (c. 1695), the Treasure House (c. 1700), the Parsonage (c. 1855), the County Clerk’s and Surrogate’s Offices (c. 1848), the Third County Courthouse (c. 1837), the Stephens House and General Store (c. 1837), the Bennett House (c. 1837), and the Van Pelt-Rezau Cemetery.

 

Learn more about the history of Richmond Town here.

 

One of ten lighthouses on Staten Island or just off its shoreline, the Staten Island Lighthouse, a range lighthouse commissioned in 1912, sits atop Lighthouse Hill overlooking Historic Richmond Town. Before more advanced navigation systems were available to boat pilots, lighthouses provided an important tool for traversing the waters of New York and New Jersey.  While navigation today is via GPS, lighthouses remain popular and are the beneficiaries of preservation efforts throughout the world.

What nineteenth-century mansion on the southern end of Staten Island was recently donated to the New York City Historic House Trust and is also home to a flock of resident peacocks?

 

The 1838 Greek Revival Seguine House was built by Joseph Seguine. Financial troubles caused the family to sell the home after the Civil War, but descendants were able to repurchase the house in 1916 and it was again occupied by the Seguine family until 1981. The new owner, George Burke, restored and donated the mansion to the Historic House Trust.

 

Take a virtual tour here.

 

 

The Richmond County Poor Farm (known as the New York Farm Colony after Staten Island joined New York City) was established in 1829 as a refuge for the elderly, infirm and homeless.  It merged with the Richmond County Isolation Hospital, later known as Seaview Hospital, in 1915.  The New York Farm Colony – Seaview Hospital Historic District reflects the innovative architecture of NYC’s turn-of-the-century commitment to improving the quality of social and health care services, and the humane design of housing for its residents.

What landmark is the final resting place of multiple generations of New York’s wealthiest Gilded Age family and led to its architect, Richard Morris Hunt, being commissioned to design the Biltmore mansion in North Carolina?

 

The c. 1884-87 Romanesque Revival Vanderbilt Mausoleum is located in the Moravian Cemetery. George Vanderbilt recruited the same team of architect Richard Morris Hunt and landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead, along with Rafael Guastavino, from New York to design his grand estate in western North Carolina. Guastavino's patented tile arch system is well known to New Yorkers, as it can be seen in Grand Central Terminal and the Municipal Building. Guastavino decided to spend the remainder of his life in western North Carolina.