This 1875 structure was erected by Charles E. Griffith, who opened a boot and shoe store on the ground floor. Having seen several different uses over the years — here's a photo of an old pool hall, complete with spittoons, that was once located on the second floor — the building currently serves as a senior housing facility.

The plaque to the left of the door, visible above, reads:

ON THIS SITE STOOD THE
ST. JAMES HOTEL
BUILT SHORTLY AFTER
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
AARON BURR DIED HERE
SEPTEMBER 14, 1836

ORIGINALLY MARKED BY
STATEN ISLAND CHAPTER NSDAR
FEBRUARY 1932 REPLACED SEPTEMBER 1976

That's not quite correct, however. The St. James Hotel actually stood next door, just to the east on Richmond Terrace. It was originally a private mansion, supposedly considered "the finest house on Staten Island", and it was built on the former site of a small British Revolutionary War fort, which itself had replaced a house, belonging to an "obnoxious" loyalist, that was destroyed by the Americans. As far as I can tell, the place was known as the Port Richmond Hotel, or Winant's Inn, at the time that the elderly former vice president and killer of Alexander Hamilton (Dick Cheney wasn't the first veep to shoot a man while in office) was living out his last months there.

Here's a watercolor painting of the inn as it would have looked during its time as the Continental Hotel (it went by a number of different names over the years) in the mid-1800s. And here's a view of Richmond Terrace, probably from the early 20th century; you can see the inn, then named Danner's, standing just past the Griffith Building, which at that point was the Schlitz Hotel.

Sounds so wholesome!

The big rusty arrow in the background is a relic of the long-defunct ferry service that preceded the Bayonne Bridge in connecting Staten Island to Bayonne, New Jersey.

From movie palace to porno theater to lumber storehouse to church

of the abandoned North Shore branch

Check out the glazed terra cotta on the building next door.

Order of the Eastern Star at Silver Lake Temple

Built in 1876

Beneath the veil lies the former Public School 20 Annex, now the Parkside Senior Apartments. This side of the building was an 1897-98 addition to the original 1891 structure, which began its life as Northfield Township's District School 6. (The school was renamed when Staten Island became part of NYC in 1898.) Take a look around in Street View to see the place without all the scaffolding.

Staten Island's oldest park has elevated levels of arsenic and lead — so don't eat the soil.

"This residence, constructed by carpenter-builder James G. Burger around 1859-61, is a rare surviving example in New York City of a picturesque villa in the Rustic style."

Thanks to this drinking fountain, we're still talking about Eugene G. Putnam, former principal of PS 20, more than a century after his death.

"One of the few surviving saltbox houses on Staten Island’s North Shore, this modest two-story Greek Revival frame cottage [built around 1848] with later Craftsman details is a significant reminder of Staten Island’s vernacular architectural traditions."

For almost 30 years, this house has been owned by John Foxell, an "artist, writer and self-confessed eccentric" who has painstakingly renovated the formerly dilapidated building and has added two small structures, a "prayer house" and a "spirit house", to the property. Mr. Foxell has also spent a great deal of time decorating the place to suit his particular tastes:

Many items might strike a more squeamish man as simply grisly — for example, the pair of glass-fronted coffins containing skeletons; a necklace made of human bones; a box containing children's teeth. Hollow-eyed skulls peer out from shadowy corners.

Yet these memento mori do not offend.

"They remind us that we're just a stack of bones, that we're just passing through," Mr. Foxell said. "I'm not put off by them. They're good company."

He is prepared for emergencies as well as the hereafter. Off the kitchen, home to a 1934 ball-top General Electric refrigerator and a 1951 stove, is a pantry stocked with items like canned creamed possum. "Survival food," Mr. Foxell said.

You can see some interior photos here and here.

Relatively speaking, at least.

This is Palmer's Run, a.k.a. Bodine Creek (map).

A museum/gallery of sculptures created from scrap metal and car parts by a former auto mechanic. More pictures here and here.

Queen Ann Car Wash

This catering hall is owned and rented out by the Alzheimer's Foundation of Staten Island. (Or at least it was — the organization has had some financial problems in recent years and the place looks a little too neglected to be an active event space.) The building was formerly, at least as far back as the early 1930s, known as Svea Hall, named for the Swedish fraternal organization that built it. It later served as a Masonic temple and then as the Mandalay catering hall before becoming Memory Lane.

on the abandoned North Short branch of the Staten Island Railway. You can see the skeleton of the platform shelter still standing on top of the viaduct. The short brick building at right looks like it could have once been the station house, although I can't find any evidence that it actually was. If I'm reading this page correctly, Kevin Walsh identifies it as a former public restroom. For what it's worth, this 1936 photo (found here) shows that the building dates back at least as far as the elevated station itself.

The Ritz "was one of three theaters that earned Port Richmond the nickname 'Times Square of Staten Island.' Built in 1924, the town's most ornate and most expensive theater held more than 2,100 seats. Audience members could watch movies or vaudeville shows accompanied by the Ritz Orchestra. Double features cost 20¢ in 1948."

In the 1970s, the Ritz became a venue for big-name rock shows, much like another seemingly out-of-the-way old theater we've crossed paths with: the old Loew’s 46th Street in Borough Park. Some of the acts that played here at the Ritz: Jethro Tull, Jefferson Airplane, Black Sabbath, the Kinks, Procol Harum, Captain Beefheart, the Allman Brothers, Alice Cooper, Yes, Humble Pie, King Crimson, and Don McLean.

The theater was later transformed into a roller-skating rink before taking on its current role as a tile showroom in the mid-1980s.

Dedicated as a Masonic temple in 1926, this building served as the headquarters for an Army antiaircraft unit during World War II.

Hear them in action!

Related: "Hardass Witch Man Warns of Imposter-Witches"

by Robert Adzema. Instructions here. (Step 1: Make the sun come out.)

of a long-gone OTB parlor

So don't go getting any big ideas.

...bicycle wheel tree-branch separator.

This shot makes things a little clearer.

An imposing intersection

From the NY Times:

At my feet, a blush of pale pink petals with magenta-colored stripes: spring beauty, Claytonia virginica. Bright yellow streaks at the base of the petals hint at more artful intentions – luring the love of a bee. These markings guide insects inside toward the nectar.

On the first day they open, spring beauty’s flowers are in male phase, releasing pollen from pink anthers. The next day, these bend backward and the stigma, the female part, emerges to collect pollen. Each individual flower may last as long as a week.

we take even better care of your children than we do of our yard.

Closer look; associated memorial plaque

Broadway — there's at least one street so named in each borough.

Located at the eastern end of Disosway Place. Built around 1800?

Just around the corner on Delafield Avenue is an even older house that I somehow didn't notice, probably because of either inattention or high hedges. It's known as the Scott-Edwards House, and it dates back to about 1730. Check it out in Street View.

Looks like another old-timer!

This bizarre and somewhat terrifying image found in the parking lot of Calla Karate & Jujutsu belongs to a mural painted by students from a nearby church school as part of a local civic improvement contest. Thanks to their efforts, their school won the grand prize of $3,000.

As you can see, that's the birth year claimed by this building.

but the sign lives on.

Nothing commands respect like the use of the word "poo".

This guy told me the perplexing artwork above the garage door was put up by a previous business, and he has no idea what it's supposed to represent. But he said the neighborhood kids love it, so maybe that's why he's decided to leave it in place. Or perhaps he just appreciates the virtues of a unique sign (see license plate).

but I believe the birds have been fed.