All about the Staten Island neighborhood Stapleton
Staten Island is broken down into 14 different zip codes from 10301 to 10314 and into 67 different neighborhoods. Throughout this series of blogs, we will be discussing each and every neighborhood on Staten Island as well as breaking down the history, what stands there today and transportation and what community district it falls into. Staten Island is broken up into three different community districts which are: North Shore, Mid-Island, and South Shore.
Today we will be breaking down all the history about the Staten Island neighborhood, Stapleton. This neighborhood is home to the North Shore & the zip code 10304. The neighborhood is situated on the Upper New York Bay coastline, with Tompkinsville at Grant Street to the north, Clifton at Vanderbilt Avenue to the south, and St. Paul's Avenue and Van Duzer Street, which separate it from the Grymes Hill district, to the west. Stapleton, one of the borough's older waterfront districts, was constructed in the 1830s on land that the Vanderbilt family had previously held. It had long been the island's commercial hub, but after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was built in 1964 and the island's commercial activity moved inside, it was neglected for several decades and has battled to recover.
The farm where Cornelius Vanderbilt was raised was located in the area, near the site of the current Paramount Theater on Bay Street, which has since closed. It developed into Southfield Township's commercial hub in the beginning of the 1800s. The area was laid out by Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins' son, Minthorne Tompkins, and Manhattan merchant William J. Staples, who both purchased land from the Vanderbilts in 1832. In 1836, Staples and Tompkins advertised their new hamlet and launched a ferry service to Manhattan from the neighborhood shoreline.
Seaman's Retreat, a hospital for sailors entering New York Harbor, first established in 1832. It eventually changed its name to Bayley Seton Hospital and became the neighborhood's biggest employer. The Sisters of Charity, an order of Roman Catholic nuns that ran the institution, closed in 2004. Additionally, a US Public Health Service hospital was located there for a considerable amount of time. Numerous springs in the area encouraged the building of German-American breweries in the middle of the 19th century. In 1963, the final brewery shuttered.
Stapleton became a village when it was established as Edgewater in 1884. Situated in Tappen Park, the historic Village Hall is still intact. With a stop at Stapleton station, the Staten Island Railway extended its track northward from the area to St. George in 1884. Two years later, in 1886, the neighborhood's direct ferry service to Manhattan was halted.
Stapleton operated the Staten Island Stapletons, an NFL professional football team, from 1929 to 1931. They went under the name Staten Island Stapes for the last two years. Founded in 1915, this professional American football team participated in the National Football League between 1929 and 1932. Jack Shapiro was the shortest player in NFL history. He was a blocking back for the Stapletons.
I.S.49, which is located across from the Stapleton Houses, opened its doors in 1963. The Houses, a housing project supported by the State of New York, has been operational for two years. It is the biggest New York City Housing Authority project in the borough and has the highest structures of any project of its kind on Staten Island, at eight floors tall.
The piers were once again designated as foreign trade zones during World War II, but by the 1970s, most of them had been dismantled due to a fall in usage. As part of the navy's distribution during President Ronald Reagan's military build-up, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman chose Stapleton as the homeport for a naval unit led by the battleship USS Iowa in 1983. When study of the proposal revealed a net loss of civilian employment on Staten Island, it became extremely unpopular throughout the island. The idea that the Iowa's Tomahawk cruise missiles and the Aegis cruiser they were flying might, at the very least, occasionally, be armed with nuclear weapons made it contentious as well. The city administration rejected this for reasons that were never explained, and eventually some of the civil courts took up a tiny portion of the property, leaving the majority empty while several plans for housing, parkland, and an educational complex, among other uses, were put forth.
Public transit is readily available in Stapleton because of its close proximity to the Staten Island Ferry. At Prospect Street and Bay Street, there is a station named after the Staten Island Railway. The local buses S51, S52, S74, S76, S78, S81, S84, and S86 also stop at Stapleton. The SIM30 route offers express bus service to and from Manhattan. The schools that serve the neighborhood are P.S. 65 and I.S. 49.
As you may see, Staten Island exudes so much history that is still honored throughout our neighborhoods. Stapleton is home to many people from Staten Island. The neighborhood is covered in every corner with many food spots, transportation, parks and schools. This neighborhood is worth learning more about and living.
Looking to buy or sell your home on Staten Island? For all your real estate needs, look no further than Tom Crimmins Realty! Give us a call at (718) 370-3200, and we can provide you with professionally-trained agents who are flexible to all that you’re looking for!
Posted by Tom Crimmins Realty on
Leave A Comment