victory

You don't often think of Staten Island as being a hotbed for Victorian-style architecture, but the St. George Historic District, a short walk from the ferry, is exactly that. Dozens of old-style mansions and buildings constructed in the late 1890s line the quiet streets, especially in the area of St. Marks Place (Victory Blvd. is the main street in the area). There are other marvelous old houses elsewhere in the borough.

A band hasn't played here for quite some time, but the bandshell in Tappen Park in the ancient neighborhood of Stapleton is still there.

This house on the corner of St. Marks Place and Westervelt Avenue was built in 1860 (the date I received is incorrect; see below.)

In August 1999 I heard from the owner of this house, who graciously supplied the following information:

My house at the corner of Saint Mark's Place and Westervelt Avenue, in St. George, Staten Island appears in your "Victory Boulevard Victorians" section. The house was built in 1885 (not 1860) by a Dr. Walzer, who was then president of the Richmond County Medical Society, on a plot of land adjacent to his own home at 33 Westervelt Avenue.

To build an income-producing property (two one-family semi-attached buildings for moderately prosperous tenants), he engaged the services of Edward Alfred Sargent, a then fairly prominent architect who received many commissions in the neighborhood from the mid 1880s through 1914.

The house is representative of the Queen Anne style popular at the time, with its preference for asymmetry and multiple surfacing materials (brick, clapboard, decorative shingle). Unlike other Queen Anne-style buildings he designed on Saint Mark's Place, however, Sargent's style at One and Five Saint Mark's Place is fairly severe.

Tottenville, on the tip of Staten Island closest to New Jersey, has its own set of handsome Victorian structures, including this house on Bentley Street.

Here's another website devoted to the St. George Historic District.

Questions? Comments? Email me at erpietri@earthlink.net.

Daniel Low Terrace and Fort Place

The house at the end of Phelps Place in St. George was built in 1880.

This Queen Anne-style home is one of three on St. Marks Place that are unique to New York City. They provide a terrific view of the harbor from the back.

This house, built in 1892, was owned by the silent film star Mabel Normand in 1916.

This purple and gold "Carpenter Gothic" house makes a fitting end to Arthur Kill Road, which winds from Richmondtown to Tottenville.