Staten Island historian
James G. Ferreri's Past/Present/Future looks back on the development of
Stapleton, a Staten Island neighborhood founded in 1833 as a joint venture of Minthorn Tompkins and William J. Staples, on what had been Vanderbilt land.
Minthorn Tompkins, son of former governor and vice-president Daniel D. Tompkins, saw, as his father had, the potential for residential development along Staten Island’s eastern shore.
Stapleton, close to New York Harbor and the Staten Island Ferry, was an almost immediate success.
Built around 1835-40 in the then-fashionable Greek Revival style shortly after St. Paul's Church and rectory, the three-story, cube-shaped wood-frame house at No. 204 St. Paul's Avenue is characterized by three bays, a basement and a full front porch lined with classical columns.
Its small, bracketed third-story windows ("eyebrows") and its dentil moldings are typical of American Greek Revival houses.
Built on a site chosen by original owner James Creighton for its hillside views, No. 204 is one of the oldest surviving homes in Stapleton, dating from just after the village was founded and the Tompkins and Staples ferry service was established to carry the city's newest suburban commuters to the foot of Manhattan's Broad Street.
During the Civil War, Stapleton suffered as merchantile shipping fell off, but revived at the end of the war, when No. 204 was sold. In 1867, the new owner, Diedericke (Dora) Sudendorf, converted it into a boarding house, as Stapleton became a hub for German immigrants.
In the early 20th century, the front porch was enclosed, hiding the paneled wood-and-glass entry door with sidelights and columns, and an enclosed second story was added above the front porch.
Around 1940, a two-car garage was dug out of the hillside in front of the house, and concrete steps were added.
No. 204 is now part of the
Stapleton Heights-Mud Lane Historic District.
American Greek Revival style can be traced to Thomas Jefferson, who, although he did not build in it, owned a copy of the first edition of “
The Antiquities of Athens" and helped introduce Greek Revival architecture here.
In 1803, Jefferson appointed Benjamin Henry Latrobe as U.S. public building surveyor. Latrobe, who had a hand in the design of a number of important American public buildings, including the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., worked in an ideosyncratic neo-classical style that incorporates American iconography, such as eagles and tobacco leaves.
In 1833, elements of this style were incorporated in the design of Staten Island's Sailors Snug Harbor, the row of Greek temples that is today considered one of the finest surviving groups of Greek Revival buildings in the country.
The Greek Revival style dominated American architecture from 1820 to 1850.
If you know of a
building on Staten Island that you believe deserves protection, contact the
Preservation League of Staten Island.
The
article from Staten Island live.
Present, Past, Future appears on the last Friday of the month in Home.
