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Richmondtown

Historic Richmond Town Richmondtown. This is the island's first capital, and it became the county seat in 1727. Now called the Richmondtown Restoration, or Historic Richmond Town, it is a historic village and museum complex on 100 acres of land with twenty-seven original buildings spanning three centuries of Staten Island's history. There are several houses that date from the colonial period, including the Treasure House (c. 1700), where British officers are said to have hidden in the walls the gold coins that were discovered just before the Civil War. The Christopher House (c. 1720) is said to have been a clandestine meeting place for local Patriots, including members of the Mersereau family, who spied for George Washington during the Revolution. Also of interest are the Voorlezer's House (c. 1695), the Moravian Cemetery, the Church of St. Andrew, and the Museum of the Staten Island Historical Society, which displays objects collected from the British fort on nearby Richmond Hill. The last traces of the fort itself are gone. Historic Richmond Town, 441 Clarke Avenue, Staten Island, N.Y. 10306-1125; phone: (718) 351-1611; website: www.historicrichmondtown.org.

architecture. Architecture has reflected New York City’s rise as the country’s economic and cultural capital. The city’s architects have led the nation in innovative design and engineering techniques, making the city famous for its vertical skyline, among the first in the world. This produced an extraordinary population density in Manhattan. Early New York City architecture was influenced by Dutch settlers. Seventeenthcentury New Amsterdam adopted the style of its mother city, with narrow multistory buildings marked by stepped gables and low swooping roofs. In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, British style dominated, featuring mostly Georgian and Federal row houses that were characterized by design symmetry; the use of brick, timber, and masonry; and ornate sashes and linteled doorways. The few examples that survive include residences in Historic Richmond Town in Staten Island, the Friends Meeting House (1694, 1719) in Flushing, St. Paul’s Chapel (1768, 1794) in Manhattan, and the Old New Dorp Moravian Church (1764) in Staten Island.

-Jackson, Kenneth T., and Keller, Lisa, eds. The Encyclopedia of New York City (2). New Haven, US: Yale University Press, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 9 November 2016.

Copyright © 2010. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

Richmondtown. Neighborhood in Staten Island near the geographic center of the borough. Its main streets are Richmond Road and Clarke Avenue. In the 1690s the area was the site of a crossroads settlement known as Cocclestown because of its abundance of oyster shells. It later became Richmond Town, the county seat and the site of the county jail (1710) and courthouse (1728). The first building of the Church of St. Andrew (Episcopal) was constructed from 1711 to 1713. In 1837 a local entrepreneur named Henry Seaman bought the Swaim farm, divided it into lots, and constructed five houses (three of which remain standing in the early twenty-fi rst century). In the same year a new Greek Revival courthouse was built, followed by a new jail in 1860 (later demolished). The Church of St. Patrick (Roman Catholic) was erected in 1868. Consolidation in 1898 led to the gradual removal of county government operations to St. George, but the neighborhood continued to grow after Staten Island Rapid Transit was built to its south. In the early twenty-first century Richmondtown is a middle-class residential neighborhood. The firehouse at 3664 Richmond Road is the home of one of the two remaining volunteer fire companies in New York City.

Jackson, Kenneth T., and Keller, Lisa, eds. The Encyclopedia of New York City (2). New Haven, US: Yale University Press, 2010. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 9 November 2016.

Copyright © 2010. Yale University Press. All rights reserved.

-"New York." Landmarks of the American Revolution: Library of Military History, edited by Mark M. Boatner, III, 2nd ed., Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006, pp. 177-246. go.galegroup.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=cuny_hunter&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CCX3486500030&asid=577f0913d1a8ea74b59212d3e9ddebea. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.