Staten Island Actor's Home

Here's a colored postcard of the Actor's Home in West New Brighton. Yeah, it was a pretty building.

Another Methodist Church in Mariner's Harbor

All I know is that the picture claims to be of a Methodist Episcopal Church on Harbor Road at Journeay Street. Now there's a Pentecostal Tabernacle next door and the building's been changed so much on the outside that it took me an extra second or two to recognize it. One more example of the changing of the guard on Staten Island's working class streets.


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More Writers

E.R. Eddison - The Worm Ourboros and the Zimiamvia Trilogy

A writer I know a bit about but I haven't been able to read yet. Meaning I haven't been able to wade through his pseudo-archaic dialogue as of yet. Still, he was important to writers as diverse as Lovecraft and Tolkien. It really seems the first book is the most important to the later development of Sword and Sorcery. Perhaps he's a little more trying for highbrow than pulp but his importance seems clear.


Second Coming

Andre Norton - Witch World

border="0" alt="" />This is someone I've never read anything by but her following is still huge and her output is legendary. I'm including her without much knowledge of her stuff because she was a member of Lin Carter's SAGA group back in the seventies.

Rebirthed

Richard Kirk - Raven, Swordmistress of Chaos

Actually the award winning writer Robert Holdstock and Angus Wells switching off titles in this five book series. I got 'em but haven't read 'em. They look luridly over-the-top. I first became aware of them in the old "Giants in the Earth" feature in the old "Dragon Magazine" back in the early eighties. They'd do write ups and give you stats for various fictional characters.



Newest Stuff


Glen Cook - The Dread Empire, the Black Company, numerous other series and single books

So I've read a ton of his stuff and it's pretty amazing. It's grim, exciting and pretty well (mostly) plotted and often utterly insane. I see it as somewhere
between the D&D style epic stuff like Steve Erikson and the outright S&S stuff of someone like Robert E. Howard.

Mysterious Methodist Episcopal Church

For some time I've wondered at the history of the small church on Willowbrook Road near Forest Avenue just by the Burger King. Now it houses a Spanish language evangelical congregation but its apparent age and the old cemetery ringing it clearly indicates an old, lost heritage.


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Doing one of my period searches through the NYPL Digital Archive I found this picture. A quick look at googlemaps confirmed my suspicions - it's the same building.



The two outer windows in the staircase have been removed and the steeple is long gone. There are added awnings and other minor changes but the original building still comes through.


I still don't know anything about the church and its history. I guess I can add it to the list of Methodist church closings and consolidations in the late sixties but I have no way at present of knowing for sure. I've never actually knowingly known anyone who belonged to any of the Island's Methodist congregations.

The Paved Wonders of Staten Island

Once there was a beautiful building designed to house down at their heels actors who'd reached the latter stages of their lives. Now it's the Staten Island Zoo parking lot.


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Once German immigrants sought to create a prestige private school in St. George. They founded the Staten Island Academy. It burned down in the seventies and was replaced with...a parking lot.


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Vanderbilt Family Mansion - Swedish Home for the Aged

Originally this mansion (one of the few remaining from Staten Island's "Golden Age") was built for one of the Vanderbilt Family daughters. At some point it was given over to charity and the Swedish Home for the Aged was opened. Only this past spring did it finally close due to failing revenues. Still, the gorgeous Victorian mansion remains hidden away in the woods between Victory Boulevard and the Staten Island Expressway.


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Summerfield Methodist Church

When the Methodist Church seemed to collapse on Staten Island's North Shore in the late sixties, Summerfield Methodist Church survived. At present it's still an active congregation but it's a small remnant of what it once was.

Comparing the old photo to the Google Map view you can see the houses on the church's right are still there. The one to its left is the church parking lot.


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