of a long-gone OTB parlor

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

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

Hear them in action!

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

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.

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.

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.

Queen Ann Car Wash

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