Historic Richmond Town

Richmond
Staten Island

Readers may have noticed that I include a lot of Staten Island museums and cultural institutions in this blog. This is because Staten Island is just about the last place the average New Yorker or tourist thinks about visiting. It requires a subway to the bottom of Manhattan and then a ferry and then a bus. Not exactly an easy day’s outing. But think of the ferry ride like a free mini-cruise and things don’t seem so bad. One thing State Island really has going for it is that it is relatively uncrowded and peaceful, which makes it a nice destination for a day-trip. However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has just announced plans to build the world’s largest ferris wheel and a 100-store mall (both slated to open in 2015) in order to attract more visitors to the often-ignored borough. Which means peace-loving tourists best get to the island while it’s still quiet.

Historic Richmond Town is one of Staten Island’s better-known destinations, and it is particularly popular with local families and school groups, so beware of strollers and groups of roaming children. It also has almost thirty original (not rebuilt or renovated—though some have been moved from their original location) structures ranging from the 1695 to 1907. It is strongly recommended that visitors who do not wish to take a guided tour inevitably filled with families print out their own map at home. The visitor’s center at Richmond Town is fiercely protective of their maps and give them only to those who pay for a tour. Because the Town is an open space, it is easy to wander through the area for free, but along with the tour, the admission price also grants access to the Historical Museum that houses rotating exhibitions.

The town of Richmond became the center of government in Richmond County in the early 1700s and a Greek Revival style courthouse was built in the then-prominent town in 1837. At the end of the 19^th century, however, Staten Island became a borough of New York City and government shifted to St. George, the port area closest to Manhattan. The idea of preserving the area developed during the Great Depression of the 1930s and in the 1950s the Staten Island Historical Society signed a contract with NYC to maintain and develop Historic Richmond Town as a museum village.

 

Along with gorgeous buildings with styles ranging from Dutch Colonial to Gothic Revival, Richmond Town boasts one of my personal favorite features of some educational sites: craftspeople dressed in historic costume working with period equipment and vintage tools. Visitors will encounter blacksmiths, woodworkers, shop owners, butter churners, weavers, carpenters, and basket makers. I always get very disappointed when the period interpreters break out of character. It’s one thing to eliminate the fourth wall but ruining the illusion completely is another. Period guides need to take notes from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum—those people never break character. 

The information provided by the map is a bit sparse, and as I avoided the tour I cannot speak to the sort of inside stories and juicy bits of gossip that it does or does not include. I can, however, recommend visitors not to miss a few of the outlying buildings in the village that are some of the nicest gems in Richmond Town. Christopher House (1720) is a beautiful fieldstone farmhouse that is hidden down a path behind Voorlezer’s House (1695) on Arthur Kill Road. Public School 28 (1907) beyond the parking lot is built in the Arts and Craft style and was the first elementary school in Staten Island. Also easy to miss are the Rezeau-Van Pelt Family Cemetery near the Courthouse and the 1860s outhouse near the Carpenter Shop. The map says absolutely nothing about a large millstone and anchor located at the site of the now-destroyed second county courthouse. There is, however, a lovely mill along the nearby river stream.

Depending on how you like to pace things and what sort of events are going on (there are tavern concerts every Saturday and plenty of workshops and demonstrations) you could easily spend an entire day at Historic Richmond Town. Or, if that’s a bit much for you, visit the Town in the morning and then brave the uphill climb to the nearby Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art.

www.historicrichmondtown.org