travis

CONTINUED FROM TRAVIS, PART 1

Sylvan Cemetery

This green triangle at Victory Blvd. and Glen Street reflects both the town's past and the inescapable realities of urban living today.

Perhaps no other extant cemetery in NYC has been as affected by vandalism quite as much as Sylvan, or Grove, Cemetery, though it is in much better shape than when I first saw it in 1999. It has been stabilized by Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries.

In 1960, Travis substituted for the rural Kansas of the 1920s when Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner and Warren Beatty, was filmed here in 1960; some key scenes were filmed on Victory Blvd. just outside the cemetery. Some of the houses on Victory Blvd. seem unchanged since then...



	A massive mall, Showplace Center, has been constructed at Victory Blvd. and the West Shore Expressway; it has siphoned off traffic from businesses on the boulevard, though a few mom and pop shops and pizzerias remain, as well as Hair to Dye For.

Across the Expressway

After Victory Blvd. crosses the West Shore Expressway you see some of those roadside signs that used to be all over the island, but are now relagated to this far off post. They ain't Burma-Shave caliber but they're still funny, especially the juxtapositioning.


In Travis, they will obey...otherwise...	...they'll get stuffed!
		You used to be able to swim the Arthur Kill. These days, you can just walk across.


	The name's longer than they alley. Feldmeyer's Lane is where you will find Vincent's Automotive, here since 1916. In length, though, the name is far from Staten Island's longest in letter-per-alley ratio. In Rosebank, several miles to the northeast, we have Kaltenmeier and Shaughnessy Lanes.




Crabb's Lane doesn't make most maps. A previous yellow and black Crabb's Lane sign can be found at, where else, the Waterfront Crabhouse in Long Island City.
			A stroll up Crabb's Lane (a feat probably not accomplished by anyone who doesn't actually live on it) reveals a slight bend to the south on which you'll find a bungalow-style house and a couple of ancient wagon wheels. Looking down Crabb's Lane, you have aview of the massive Con Ed facility. From 1873-1931 this was the site of the American Linoleum Company, and from 1941-1955, Richmond County Airport; then Con Ed took it over. Crabb's Lane has seen a lot.
Crabb's Lane was probably not named for this guy, who spells his name with a K. (Like me.)

South of Wild Avenue, which curves around to meet Victory Blvd. again south of the expressway (it was where the American Linoleum Company built housing for its workers in the early 20th Century) Victory Blvd. runs through the rushes and peters out at the Arthur Kill. It's a dead end now, but in the colonial route it was an important route to New Jersey and Philadelphia via ferry.

This page was photographed in September 2005 and completed March 11, 2006.

erpietri@earthlink.net

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