Day 1022

Today’s route — 18.7 miles

October 17th, 2014

Day 1022

UBCMC

October 17th, 2014



United Brotherhood of Carpenters Motorcycle Club

Day 1022

PUG TAXI

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

Short ‘n’ spunky

October 17th, 2014



Check out this little ball of pep on a dreary January day.

Day 1022

Eight

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022




This house was built in 1880-82 for Mr. Schoverling ("one of the world's foremost importers and distributors of firearms") and his almost identically named wife.

Day 1022

A mighty slope

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

“Christ is the Answer”

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

Sidewalk sorghum

October 17th, 2014



2014: a bad year for figs, but a good one, at least in my world, for sorghum.

Day 1022

Up and up

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

As seen from Nixon Avenue

October 17th, 2014



The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Day 1022

56 Marion Avenue

October 17th, 2014



Built in 1905

Day 1022

37 Occident Avenue

October 17th, 2014



Built around 1893-98

Day 1022

A meeting of worlds

October 17th, 2014



This house (which is named Portview, according to another tablet opposite the one above) is located at the intersection of Sunrise Terrace and Occident Avenue, and its current address is 6 Sunrise Terrace, implying that it once stood like Istanbul or Damascus at the crossroads of Orient and Occident.

(This 1907 map [look at the bottom left] confirms that this block of Sunrise Terrace used to be called Orient Avenue.)

Day 1022

Portal of the day

October 17th, 2014



Worked into this gate at the dead end of Pearl Street are the house's address ("Pearl St No 41") and "Much heat & Love 1980". Here's what the other door looks like.

Day 1022

Long way home

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

Serpentine Commons

October 17th, 2014



This hillside nature preserve, established and maintained by a local community group, is named for the type of rock that forms the spine of Staten Island (last paragraph).

Day 1022

Mural by Class 5-306, PS 42

October 17th, 2014



Mounted at the foot of the Serpentine Commons nature preserve

Day 1022

View from the barren

October 17th, 2014



The Serpentine Commons nature preserve contains a serpentine barren with a spectacular view out toward the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Day 1022

Abuzz on the barren

October 17th, 2014



at the Serpentine Commons nature preserve

Day 1022

Empty hilltop palace

October 17th, 2014



This seemingly vacant house, on the market since at least 2007, stands amid a large congregation of mansions on Grymes Hill. We're looking at it from behind, where a Serpentine Commons trail passes by its backyard on the way out to Howard Avenue.

Day 1022

Overgrown hillside backyard

October 17th, 2014



This belongs to the next-door neighbor of the house in the previous photo.

Day 1022

A little light on the walls

October 17th, 2014



Here's a look at this treehouse in its glory days a year earlier.

Day 1022

I sense a conspiracy

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022




Why have actual food for breakfast when you could be eating more candy? It's refreshing to see a major corporation taking a public stand to address the dire lack of sugar and fat in the American diet.

Day 1022

Peeking through

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

52 Warren Street

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

Checker Marathon

October 17th, 2014



These cars, painted a different color, were once a common sight on the streets of New York.

Day 1022

561 and 563 Van Duzer Street

October 17th, 2014



You can find some info on these old-timers (and other Van Duzer structures as well) here.

Day 1022




We've previously seen the rear of these buildings from a block away on Targee Street.

Day 1022

528 Van Duzer Street

October 17th, 2014



This residence was originally the Robinson Hose Company 9 firehouse (as indicated by the semicircular window up in the gable). The company, part of the volunteer Edgewater Fire Department, was established in 1880, moved here in either 1889 or 1895, and was disbanded in 1905 when the FDNY took over firefighting duties in the area. As a hose company, it "used a hand-pulled hose wagon and relied on hydrant pressure until an engine company arrived at fires."

Day 1022

Temporal honking restrictions

October 17th, 2014


Day 1022

Stone “Street”

October 17th, 2014



This very steep and narrow passageway is closed to through traffic by both the DOT (bollard) and Mother Nature (tree).

Day 1022

A.D. 1891

October 17th, 2014



94 Trossach Road

Day 1022

396 St. Paul’s Avenue

October 17th, 2014



"This house appears to be the result of several building campaigns starting with a frame, Gothic Revival-style house constructed c.1855-59 by Charles F.E. and Bernhardine Sudendorf, and continuing in the late-nineteenth century with Queen Anne-style additions by owner Louise Pommer, and in the early twentieth century with Colonial Revival-style enhancements by owner George W. Stake."

Here's a great view of the front of the house.

Day 1022

387 St. Paul’s Avenue

October 17th, 2014



This house, "the undisputed . . . star among nearly a hundred handsome Victorian dwellings in the Stapleton area", was given by "a German-born beer baron named George Bechtel, who was said to be the richest man on Staten Island," to his daughter as a wedding present in 1888. On screen, it has served as the home of Chalky White in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. You can see a slew of photos of this gorgeous house and its ornate interior, which features a surprising number of stained-glass windows, in this audio slide show.

Day 1022

The crumbling approach

October 17th, 2014



to 364 St. Paul's Avenue

Day 1022




Opened in 1925