Built in 1893-95, this house, along with its next-door neighbor (the John King Vanderbilt House, also owned by Ms. Smith, a Staten Island historian), was almost torn down in 1987, but the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the two structures as landmarks with lightning speed (relatively speaking; the process took less than a month) after finding out that the executors of Ms. Smith's estate had applied for a permit to demolish them. In the late 1990s, this house was relocated away from the Clove Road side of the property to create more developable area on the lot. It was also restored and reoriented at that time; the front porch now faces the dead end of Waldron Avenue. (Compare this 1996 aerial image to one from 2012.) A Walgreens opened on the corner of the property last year, and there's apparently more development in store on the site of the neighboring house.

This place sure lives up to its name.

in verdant, neglected Woodland Cemetery

Herbert Newsome

Here in Silver Mount Cemetery stands the mausoleum of the Bechtel family, who ran a major Staten Island brewery (photos) in the decades before Prohibition.

courtesy of Hurricane Sandy

(The flagpole, along with a couple of benches, is out of frame to the left.)

At the Staten Island campus of St. John's University. Red door for the Red Storm?

The plaque beneath this statue on the Staten Island campus of St. John's University reads:

Cast in France during the late 1800s, this statue of St. Vincent de Paul was gifted to St. John's University by the Sisters of Charity after standing for decades in front of St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in the West Brighton section of Staten Island. It was erected here to proclaim the University's Catholic and Vincentian identity to all who enter.

St. Vincent de Paul, Universal Patron of Charity, Pray for Us — April 25, 2007

A steep, sinuous route up Grymes Hill

Check out the view from up here on Grymes Hill.

Built in 1908, this neo-Renaissance mansion is now home to the Italian Cultural Foundation, which has dubbed the place "Casa Belvedere".

from a giant chess set?