Historic Timeline

Giovanni da Verrazano, an Italian explorer sailing under the Sponsorship of King Francois I of France, becomes the first European to pass through the Narrows.

Henry Hudson, an English explorer sailing under the sponsorship of Holland, enters New York Bay in the ship Halve Maen (Half Moon). He names the island Staaten Eyelandt in honor of the Dutch Parliament - the States General or Staaten.

From the journal of Captain David Pietersen De Vries: "Anno 1639 The 5th January I sent my people to Staten Island to begin to plant a colony there and build." This is the beginning of the first European settlement on Staten Island. By 1641 the colony is abandoned due to conflicts with the Native Americans (The Pig War).

A second colony is established under the sponsorship of Cornelius Melyn. It is also abandoned due to Native American opposition in 1643 (The Whiskey War).

Baron van der Capellan toe Ryssel makes a third attempt at colonization but only manages to sustain his colony until 1655, again due to Native American opposition (The Peach War).

Nineteen Dutch and French Huguenot colonists form the first permanent European settlement on Staten Island at Oude Dorp, near present day South Beach.

English forces capture the Dutch Blockhouse (at the present site of Fort Wadsworth) defending Staten Island. By August 29 the Dutch surrender all of New Amsterdam.

Western organized religion debuts on Staten Island as the Reverend Samuel Drisius starts bi-monthly visits to the Oude Dorp colonists.

Native Americans give up Staten Island in an agreement with the English Colonial Governor Francis Lovelace. Native American concepts of allowing the use of land without granting ownership (which they felt no individual was entitled to own) cloud the validity of such land agreements.

Captain Christopher Billopp granted ownership of the southern portion of Staten Island where he builds the house that will become known as the Conference House after the Revolutionary War.

King Charles II of England renames Staten Island Richmond County after James the Duke of Richmond.

Voorlezer's House, thought to be the oldest existing school building in the United States, is built by the Dutch Reformed Church. It is now part of Historic Richmond Town.

Daniel D. Tompkins, Island resident who developed Tompkinsville, is born in what is now Scarsdale, N.Y. New York Governor from 1807 to 1817 and Vice President of the United States under President James Monroe. He was a leader in the fight to abolish slavery in New York State.

9,000 Redcoats commanded by British General William Howe land on Staten Island and set up headquarters in New Dorp. During the Revolutionary War the British presence on mainly loyalist Staten Island will climb as high as 30,000 British troops.

John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Edward Rutledge hold peace talks with British commander William Howe. Howe offers clemency in return for surrender at the home of loyalist Lt. Col. Christopher Billopp in Tottenville now called the "Conference House". The conference fails and the American Revolution continues.

2,500 American troops march across the frozen Kill Van Kull from Elizabeth, NJ to Port Richmond and attack British positions in West Brighton and New Brighton. Loyalist spies report the movements of the Americans allowing the British to call for reinforcements who push the American forces back across the ice to New Jersey.

The last British troop ship departs the newly formed United States from Staten Island. Staten Island crowds gather to jeer the departing warships as they pass through the Narrows. The last shot of the Revolutionary War is fired from a departing British vessel at the Staten Islanders. By the end of the war Staten Island was almost completely deforested to supply fuel for British army campfires.

Staten Island is divided into four official townships: Northfield, Southfield, Westfield and Castleton.

"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt is born on Long Island and moved to Stapleton, Staten Island as a child. He began sail-powered ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan which he expanded into a railroad and shipping empire. At one point he was the richest man in America. Vanderbilt went to school in Port Richmond until the age of 11. The Vanderbilts later moved to a Stapleton house that stood at the present site of the Paramount Theater on Bay Street, Stapleton

Creation of a Quarantine station for immigrants with Yellow Fever and Small Pox is authorized to move from Bedloe (now Liberty) Island to Tompkinsville. Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the first American Roman Catholic Saint, assists her father, the New York City Health Officer, Dr. Richard Bayley.

Fort Richmond (now Fort Wadsworth) protects New York City from invasion by the British during the War of 1812. Several British ships are sighted off Sandy Hook, New Jersey in 1813 but do not risk passing under the guns of the Staten Island fort. Daniel D. Tompkins leads the effort to bolster the fort's defenses creating Fort Tompkins which sits at the top of the hill. By 1815, when the war's end was announced in New York, 900 cannons lined the shores around Fort Richmond. The fort is currently part of the Gateway National Recreation Area.

Modern day Victory Boulevard begins existence when the Richmond Turnpike Company is incorporated. Their coaches connected ferries from Manhattan at Tompkinsville to New Jersey bound ferries in Travis. It is owed by Daniel D. Tompkins and promoted as the fastest route from New York to Philadelphia.

The first steam ferry begins service between Manhattan and Tompkinsville. Because of the high price of the commute (12 ½ cents each way) the ferry attracts primarily wealthy New Yorkers settle on the North Shore of Staten Island.

After a long struggle, lead by Staten Islander Daniel D. Tompkins, slavery is abolished in New York State.

The weekly newspaper the Richmond Republican, the first newspaper to cover Staten Island is produced (but printed inManhattan).

Capt. John Jackson buys land in Westfield (Sandy Ground), first record of a black man buying land in Richmond County

Charles Goodyear opens a factory near his West New Brighton home to produce rubber toys, maps and surgical bandages. Goodyear revolutionized the rubber industry when he accidentally dropped a mixture of sulfur and rubber on a hot stove creating the process known as "vulcanization" (patented 1844) that strengthened rubber so that it could be used in industry.

Newly freed blacks from Manhattan and free Maryland oystermen begin settling at Sandy Ground (parts of Rossville, Woodrow, Pleasant Plains and Charleston)

Sailor's Snug Harbor opens as the nation's first home and hospital for retired seamen. Its benefactor, Captain Robert Randall, created the institution in his will as a way to repay the sailors who had created his family's fortune.

New Brighton, one of America's earliest suburban communities, was created. It featured a large hotel and Greek Revival style homes facing the Kill Van Kull. The development included part of today's St. George.

Robbin's Reef Lighthouse, in Upper New York Bay near the St. George Ferry terminal, in commission. In 1886 Kate Walker became the keeper upon her husband's dying words: " Mind the light, Kate". She was one of a very small number of female lighthouse keepers in the nation. She rescued over 50 people during a career that lasted until 1919.

Author Henry David Thoreau lives on Staten Island while tutoring the children of Ralph Waldo Emerson's brother, William Emerson.

Italian born inventor Antonio Meucci comes to Staten Island from Cuba to develop and patent his telephone. His experiments with medical shock treatments had revealed the possibility of transmitting the human voice over electrical wires. Because Meucci lacked the funds to patent his invention the credit for the invention of the telephone eventually went to Alexander Graham Bell.

African Americans from New York City and the surrounding region began to settle permanently at Sandy Ground in the Woodrow/Rossville Area. They established the A.M.E Zion Church there. In the 1860s and 1870s free black oystermen from Snow Hill, a Maryland town on the Chesapeake Bay, greatly expand the community.

Guiseppe Garibaldi military leader of Italian unification comes to Staten Island for two years supporting himself as a candle maker while living with Antonio Meucci in Rosebank.

Kreischerville is founded in Southwest Staten Island. It was the home of clay mining operations (the remnants of which are still visible at Clay Pit Ponds State Park) and brick manufacture.

Fearing the spread of contagious disease a mob of Staten Islanders burn the Quarantine Hospital in Tompkinsville. The hospital served immigrants to the US who were thought to be too ill to enter the country.

The first passenger train on the Staten Island Railroad begins operating between Eltingville and Clifton (Vanderbilt's Landing)

During the Civil War Staten Island helps the Union War effort in several ways. Many Union regiments assemble on Staten Island to train before heading to battle including the Clinton Rifles, 178th and 145th Regiments. Staten Island ferryboats were mounted with cannons and served in the Union Navy. Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, longtime Staten Island resident, led an African American Regiment into battle.

St. George chosen as the site for a Lighthouse Depot to develop more effective lighthouses and distribute lamps and lenses throughout the country. In 1998 the site was selected as the home of the National Lighthouse Museum.

Civil War draft riots spread to Staten Island. Homes of African Americans in Stapleton are burned as blacks are unfairly blamed for causing the war. At least 5 are killed on Staten Island and many others injured.

Noted Island photographer, Alice Austen, is born. The pioneering woman photographer captured thousands of images of Staten Island and New York City life. Her Rosebank home, "Clear Comfort", overlooking the Narrows is preserved as the Alice Austen Museum.

Anna Harriet Leonowens opens a West New Brighton School on Richmond Terrace. She is best known for tutoring the 67 children of the King of Siam and the musical based on her experience - "The King and I".

Swinburne Island, a man-made island off of South Beach, is constructed as a Quarantine hospital for immigrants arriving in America with contagious diseases. It replaces the quarantine ships which had housed the sick immigrants since the burning of the Tompkinsville Quarantine Station in 1858. Originally named Dix Island, after a former New York Governor, the name was soon changed to Swinburne after the Civil War Hero and surgeon who headed the development of the Island: John S. Swinburne.

First defense of the America's Cup in the waters off Staten Island. The New York Yacht Club is based in a clubhouse located next to the Alice Austen House in Rosebank. The sailing yachts Magic and the original champion America are among the boats to defeat the British challenger Cambria.

The worst accident in the history of the Staten Island ferry occurs. A boiler explosion aboard the ferryboat Westfield II kills over 125 passengers and injures over 200 as it departs South Ferry.

Hoffman Island, a second man-made Quarantine Island, is completed off the shore of South Beach. Conditions on the both quarantine islands were often overcrowded and unsanitary. In 1901 7,801 people were detained on Hoffman Island. Use of the hospitals declined until they were finally closed in the 1920s. From 1931 to 1937 the island was used as a bird quarantine station for imported parrots. The island is named for John T. Hoffman, a former New York City Mayor and New York State Governor.

Mary Ewing Outerbridge brings tennis to the United States for the first time. After seeing the game of lawn tennis played on a vacation to Bermuda Ms. Outerbridge decides to bring back the equipment and sets up the first court in St. George.

Mary Ewing Outerbridge introduces tennis to the United States. After seeing the game played in Bermuda she sets up the first US tennis court on Staten Island. Tennis begins to spread widely and the first National Lawn Tennis Tournament is held at the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club.

The forerunner of the Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences is founded by a group of local naturalists. The group calls themselves the Natural Science Association.

The American Linoleum Manufacturing Company first introduces Electricity to Staten Island in Travis when they install electric lighting. Telephone service is also introduced to the Island this same year.

Father John Christopher Drumgoole, a Catholic Priest, founds founds St. Vincent's Home for Homeless Newsboys at Mount Loretto on Staten Island's South shore. The facility provides care for thousands of homeless children.

Tompkinsville's Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, becomes Staten Island's first Jewish congregation.

The first ferry terminal at St. George opens combining a rail connection in the same building allowing for a fast transfer to points on the south shore.

The Metropolitan Baseball Club of the American Association begins play at their St. George stadium. Before coming to Staten Island the team played in what many consider to be the first world series when they lost to the National League's Providence Grays in 1884.

The first bridge from Staten Island to New Jersey is opened. The railroad bridge connects Howland Hook to Elizabeth New Jersey. It was later torn down to make room for the Goethals Bridge.

Staten Island joins New York City. 73% of Staten Islanders approve the referendum that combines the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island into a single city. Up to this point Richmond County had been administered as five townships.

Curtis High School opens in St. George. Named for the writer, editor, orator George William Curtis.

The City of New York takes control of the Staten Island Ferry due to dangerous conditions created by private ferry operators.

Procter & Gamble Corporation opens a factory in Mariners Harbor where they produce Ivory Soap and other products for more than 80 years.

Staten Island Lighthouse on Lighthouse Hill begins operation, guiding ships from the Atlantic Ocean into Lower New York Bay.

Abel Kiviat, a Curtis High School Track Star, wins the Olympic silver medal for the 1,500-meter run in Stockholm, Sweden. He also captures gold with the U.S. 3,000-meter relay team. He is the cabinmate of track great Jim Thorpe on the ship to Sweden.

Sea View Hospital opens to treat Tuberculosis patients, becoming a national leader in the field.

The New York Bay Oyster industry, long vital to Staten Island's economy, is shut down by the New York City Health Department. Fears of Typhoid caused by the polluted water force the closure. Staten Island Oysters had been considered great delicacies around the United States and Europe. Recent efforts have been made to reintroduce oysters into New York Bay.

World War I. More than 5,000 Staten Islanders join the armed services, more men per capita than any county in the United States. 160 are killed in action. 9,000 workers are employed building steel cargo ships for the war effort at the Standard Shipbuilding Company on Shooter's Island.

Wagner College moves to Staten Island from Rochester, NY. The campus is established on the Cunard Estate, former home of the famed British shipping line's American operations manager. The college has only 16 students at the time.

The former New Dorp farm of William H. Vanderbilt is converted into a coastal air defense station. Named Miller Field air in 1920 for Captain James E. Miller an American airman killed in France during World War I.

The poet Langston Hughes lives and works for a season on a Staten Island farm growing vegetables.

Ground is broken in St. George and Brooklyn for a subway line connecting the two boroughs. It is never completed.

The Outerbridge Crossing and the Goethals Bridge, both connecting Staten Island to New Jersey, open on the same day.

The Staten Island Stapleton's, a long time Island semi-professional team, joins the National Football League.

The Bayonne Bridge opens connecting Elm Park, Staten Island and Bayonne New Jersey. It is the longest Steel Arch Bridge in the world when it is completed, just slightly longer than the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia.

The US Maritime Service opens a training school for merchant marines on Hoffman Island. By 1943 the school enrolled 1200 students. By 1947 the school outgrew the island and moved to Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

Dedication ceremonies held for FDR Boardwalk in South Beach, including huge parade with bathing beauties and babies. Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia cuts ribbon.

An explosion in the Unexcelled Manufacturing Company, a fireworks plant in Graniteville kills five employees

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill used the North Shore Branch Staten Island Railway en route to a meet President Franklin D Roosevelt in Washington DC after his ship had landed in Tompkinsville.

Staten Island fights World War II. A submarine net stretching from Miller Field across the Narrows prevents attacks by German submarines in New York Harbor. Troops train at Miller Field before being sent to fight in Europe and Africa. 250 Italian Army prisoners of war are housed on Staten Island. Island Anti-aircraft batteries defend New York City against potential air attacks.

Raging fire consumes St. George ferry terminal; killing three, injuring 280 and destroying 17 trains

Halloran General hospital is converted from military use to the Willowbrook State Hospital.

The Jacques Marchais Tibetan Museum, modeled after a Tibetan mountain temple, is constructed on Lighthouse Hill. The museum has a large collection of Tibetan art and was visited by the Dalai Lama in 1991.

Fresh Kills Landfill opens. Planned only as a "temporary" solution to New York's trash disposal problem the landfill will grow to become the world's largest. The landfill operated for more than 50 years.

The Korean War begins. Fears of an air attack on New York City bring Staten Island anti-aircraft batteries back to full strength. The Korean War Veterans Memorial Parkway, formerly the Richmond Parkway, now honors Staten Islanders who served in the Korean conflict.

Bobby Thomson, "the Staten Island Scot", hits "the shot heard 'round the world" a homerun giving the National League pennant to the New York Giants.

Passenger runs along the North Shore Railroad, connecting St. George and Mariner's Harbor, are abandoned.

"Nike" guided surface-to-air missiles are based at Fort Wadsworth continuing an active military role for the fort which began when the Dutch constructed a block house on the spot in the 1600s.

Richmondtown Restoration, now called Historic Richmond Town, opens. In Staten Island's answer to Colonial Williamsburg, costumed guides reenact historical Staten Island trades and home life in original historic buildings.

128 people are killed in a mid-air collision between a TWA plane and a United Airlines plane over Staten Island's Miller Field. The TWA plane rains wreckage down on Miller Field while the United plane flies as far as Park Slope Brooklyn before crashing. It is the worst air disaster in US history to that point.

Black Saturday: Three brush fires - one starting in Rossville, one in Tottenville and another in Mariners Harbor - destroy 100 houses, leave more than 500 homeless. The fires cause more than $2 million in damage and level many of the historic houses in the Sandy Ground community

Mid-Island Little League defeats Monterrey Mexico 4-0 to win Little League World Series. Islander Dan Yaccarino pitched a no-hitter.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn opens. Othmar Amman, designer of the Bayonne Bridge, designed the bridge. Then the largest suspension bridge in the world, the design had to incorporate the curvature of the earth and seasonal expansions and contractions which drop the roadway twelve feet lower in the summer than the winter. The bridge began a massive building and population boom on the Island that continues into the present day.

1964: December 18

NYC approval is given to establish a "Greenbelt" park reaching from Sea View to New Dorp.

1965

At the first meeting of the newly created New York City Landmarks Commission 6 Sailor's Snug Harbor buildings are designated as landmarks, saving them from demolition.

1966: Oct. 11

President Lyndon B. Johnson attends the dedication ceremony of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

1971

Geraldo Rivera brings the abuse of disabled students at the Willowbrook State School to national attention. The publicity leads to the closing of the school.

1971

St. John's University opens an Island campus after acquiring the all women's College of Notre Dame.

1971: May 4

Staten Islander Paul Zindel wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play "Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds." Zindel, a former chemistry teacher at Tottenville High School, draws inspiration for his works from local sites and personas. A prolific author of literature for adolescents, Zindel's most popular works include "The Pigman" and "My Darling, My Hamburger."

1973: August 9

The Staten Island Mall opens. Stores in traditional shopping areas such as Port Richmond relocate or close due as the large chain stores gather together in one location.

1973: Feb. 10

An empty 500,000 barrel liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank in Bloomfield explodes, killing 40 workers cleaning the inside. The incident, which stands as the borough's worst industrial accident ever, energizes local opposition to filling larger tanks, in Rossville, with the gas. The tanks are never filled, ending a 13-year battle against the plan.

1974

The Staten Island Children's Museum opens in a storefront. In 1986 the museum moves to its current location in Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

1974

Thanks in part to the Clean Water Act of 1972, wading birds are first spotted returning to the cleaner waters around Staten Island. By 1994 there were approximately 1300 pairs of wading birds on Shooters Island (43 acres), Prall's Island (80 acres), and the Isle of Meadows (101 acres). New species include ibis, heron, and egret.

1974

The Staten Island Children's Museum opens in a storefront. In 1986 the museum moves to its current location in Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

1975

The Borough of Richmond is officially renamed the Borough of Staten Island.

1976: June

The last of the retired sailors relocate from Sailor's Snug Harbor to Sea Level, North Carolina.

1976: July 1

New York City takes possession of the Sailor's Snug Harbor. It begins its new life as the Snug Harbor Cultural Center with museums, artists' studios, performance halls and botanical gardens.

1976: July 4

New York Cit celebrates the US Bicentennial with a parade of tall ships in the Narrows and harbor.

1984

Prall's Island in the Arthur Kill is acquired by the New York City Parks system as an 80-acre bird sanctuary.

1985: December 23

The Muslim Majlis Mosque, Staten Island's first Islamic house of worship, is founded in Concord.

1986

The "Teleport" is opened by the Port Authority of NY & NJ providing satellite and fiberoptic telecommunications to businesses.

1990

Several oil spills in New York Harbor turn back many of the gains made by nature in reclaiming the waterways around Staten Island. In January an Exxon pipeline spilled 567,000 gallons of fuel oil into the Arthur Kill damaging an estimated 197 acres of salt marsh and killing about 700 birds. Fortunately, the local herons, ibis and egrets had migrated south at the time.

1990

The Stapleton Homeport opens providing major facilities for the docking of US Navy war ships. It closed in 1994 due to budget cuts.

1993

The College of Staten Island starts moving to its new campus on the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School.

1993: November

65% of Staten Island voters approve a draft charter for an independent City of Staten Island but the charter is not adopted by the state government.

1996: Jan. 8-9

Staten Islands worst blizzard on record. 30 inches of snow falls

1996: May 23

The New York State Senate approves the closing of the Fresh Kills Landfill.

2001: September 11

Members of the Al Quaeda terrorist organization hijack and crash two passenger jets into the World Trade Center destroying the building and killing nearly 3,000. Staten Island bears much of the loss of life, nearly 300 residents, with a large numbers of firemen and World Trade Center workers living on Staten Island. The Fresh Kills landfill is chosen to hold the debris from the towers and serves as a crime lab for police investigators searching for human remains.

2003: February 21

Oil barge explodes on Staten Island

2003: August 14

All of Staten Island, New York City and seven other states across the Northeast and the Midwest, as well as parts of Canada, go dark late in the afternoon and stay that way for at least 12 hours in the biggest electrical blackout to affect the region in decades.

2003: October 15

In one of the bloodiest public transportation accidents in Staten Island History, the ferryboat Andrew J. Barberi plows into a concrete pier in St. George, killing 11 and injuring 70. The ship's pilot, Assistant Capt. Richard J. Smith, is sentenced to 18 months in prison.

If you would like to tell us about your own Staten Island Memories and have them added to our Memories page for all to read,
just write to us at Memories of Staten Island
and tell us where you were raised and some of your childhood memories

DISCLAIMER

If you would like to tell us about your own Staten Island Memories and have them added to our Memories page for all to read, just write to us at Memories of Staten Island and tell us where you were raised and some of your childhood memories

DISCLAIMER

If you would like to tell us about your own Staten Island Memories and have them added to our Memories page for all to read,
just write to us at Memories of Staten Island
and tell us where you were raised and some of your childhood memories