Staten Island in the Nineteenth Century
Staten Island in the Nineteenth Century

Author: Joseph Borelli

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2022-05-16

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1439674914

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Emerging from the Revolutionary War and the formation of a new nation, Staten Island was poised to enter the nineteenth century ripe for growth and prosperity. Fueled by waves of immigration, Richmond County became a boomtown of industry and transportation. Piloting his first ferry with just two small masts and eighteen-cent fares, Cornelius Vanderbilt built a transit empire from his native shores of Staten Island. When the Civil War erupted, Richmond played a key role in housing and training Union troops as 125 naval guns protected New York Harbor at the Narrows. At the close of the century, Staten Island was swept up in the politics of consolidation, with 84 percent of locals voting to join Greater New York, yet the promised benefits of a new mega-city never materialized. Author Joe Borelli charts the trials and triumphs of Staten Island in the nineteenth century.

Murder & Mayhem on Staten Island
Murder & Mayhem on Staten Island

Author: Patricia M. Salmon

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 1625847688

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New York City’s own Lizzie Borden, and eleven other true crimes “as ghastly as anything in American Horror Story” (SILive.com). Today, Polly Bodine’s name is lost to history. But on Christmas night of 1843, she was accused of murdering her sister-in-law and infant niece in ways so heinous that the great showman P.T. Barnum, proclaimed her “The Witch of Staten Island.” Even Edgar Allan Poe weighed in on the female fiend, fearing she’d escape justice. He was right. Polly was tried three times, finally acquitted, and disappeared into anonymity—and legend—until her death fifty years later. Her story is just one of a dozen horrific murders unearthed by historian Patricia M. Salmon in this fascinating peek into the gruesome history of the New York borough. Among the other headline-making cases: The Baby Farm Murders, The Jazz Age Kiss Slayer, The Body in the Barrel, and more. These turn-of-the century tabloid tales of serial killers and psychopaths, love gone wrong, cold-blooded revenge, and unsolved mysteries are still the stuff of nightmares.

Peaceful Places: New York City
Peaceful Places: New York City

Author: Evelyn Kanter

Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press

Published: 2010-03-12

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0897329007

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Sensory overload may make for exciting urban life, but sometimes it's just too much. Kicking off a new series of city guides, 100 Peaceful Places: New York City leads both residents and visitors on an unexpected path. Author Evelyn Kanter shares the inspiring, restorative pockets she has come to love over a lifetime of exploring and living in New York City. While her native Manhattan serves up many calming spots, this unique guide reflects New York's colorful ethnic diversity, revealing the unexpected sanctuaries, gardens, vistas, beaches, neighborhood strolls, and peaceful cafés that can be found throughout the city. And by knowing when to go or where to head once inside, visitors can escape the crowds even at popular, tourist-heavy destinations like Grand Central Station and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a bonus, many of the sites offer free admission, and none are exorbitantly expensive.

Green Metropolis
Green Metropolis

Author: Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1101875534

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"The woman who launched the restoration of Central Park in 1980 surveys in depth seven green landscapes in New York City, their history--both natural and human--and how they have been transformed over time. Elizabeth Barlow Rogers describes seven landscapes: greenbelt and nature refuge that runs along the spine of Staten Island on land once intended for a highway; Jamaica Bay, near JFK Airport, whose mosaic of fragile, endangered marshes has been preserved as a bird sanctuary; Inwood Hill, in upper Manhattan, whose forest once sheltered Native Americans and Revolutionary soldiers before it became a site for wealthy estates and subsequently a public park; the Central Park Ramble, a carefully designed artificial wilderness in the middle of the city; Roosevelt Island, formerly Welfare Island, in the East River, where urban planners built a traffic-free 'new town in town' in the 1970s and whose southern tip now boasts the Louis Kahn-designed memorial to FDR; Fresh Kills, the James Corner Field Operations-designed 2,200-acre park on Staten Island that is being created out of what was once the world's largest landfill; The High Line, in Manhattan's Chelsea and West Village neighborhoods, an aerial promenade built on an abandoned elevated rail spur"--