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Sea view is the first historic district in Staten Island and was designated so in 1983. It lies on approximately 320 acres at the center of Staten Island, on either side of Brielle avenue from each other.
Founded separately, for two brief periods they were under the same administration - SeaView Hospital as a tuberculosis hospital, Farm Colony as a poor farm.
In 1902 the Richmond Country Poor Farm was renamed the New York City Farm Colony. Quoting from another website on its purpose and assets is the following "...as to the New York City Farm Colony…much can be said of its importance to the City. While the inmates at other institutions under the Department of Public Charities look around and have nothing whatever to do, here they pay for their board twofold by their labor, working on the farm raising vegetables, not only for themselves, but for other unfortunates. No healthier spot within miles of Greater New York can be found, situated on the western slope of Todt Hill, the highest land in Greater New York – it being 368 feet above sea level – a beautiful site with its fertile fields, where any kind of vegetable thrives. All it needs is cultivation…"
The buildings were built between 1904 and 1916. The first building, known as dormitories 1&2 opened in 1904. The building ILLEGALLY destroyed in 1999, known as dormitories 3&4 was the second building constructed. It was completed in 1909.
The last residents were removed in 1975. In 1980 the city began trying to sell the land for development, despite protests for making the unbuilt land part of the green belt.
In 1984, 22 of approximately 95 acres were transferred to the Parks Department to be included in the Greenbelt.
In 1988, the city issued a "request for expressions of interest" for purchase and development of the farm colony. Which would have included residential development as well as renovation of historical buildings. Again - there were protests and things went no where.
In 1999, The New York City Economic Development Corporation requested constructed of senioir housing on the forested land to the north of Seaview Hospital. Environmental advocates oppose this plan and have filed suit against the city.
Growing up in Staten Island, Sea view was always known about... and someplace fun to wander. As kids we'd wander in on days we were bored, being no more then 8 or 9, fear wasn't in our minds yet. As teenagers we'd get trashed and drive in to scare ourselves. And now as avid fans of scaring the shit out of ourselves and everyone else, we finally went back. I hadn't been since I was no more then 15 or 16, Jay had never been. Once I finally got off probation.. we decided it was time to go.. Oh ya..probation.. hence the very few updates on the website, but lets not get into that right now.
We went one nite, in the pouring rain, but it didn't feel right. Probably for the fact that there's in tact buildings, in semi decent shape, that would hide a homeless person from the weather very well.. I can deal with the prospect of ghost and ghouls allot better then the homeless, the homeless have nothing to lose but their place to sleep for that night. So on that note, we wandered about a half hour, didn't go inside much, and left.
A week or so later we decided to go "hiking".. Being basically in the greenbelt we figured we'd go for a hike and have a look around there as well. *Id warn against this at this time though, it seems we're in a pretty nasty tick season and Off doesn't work against them (5/17/04)* It was a decent day, sunny and cool. We wandered for what seemed like hours on the grounds, entering random buildings. After awhile I started to get bored, People are disgusting and have hopelessly destroyed these once beautiful buildings. Then we came to the one building I was always frightened of, the hospital. Having a few weird experiences in there when I was little, we cautiously preceded. But we didn't feel right. The building was boarded up pretty tight, and we were deep in but we kept getting a breeze. We'd randomly catch our breath in the flashlight. On this day we only had one light, maybe that's why after about 15 minutes we excited, swearing to come back with more light and more people.
Also we want to draw out a map of the buildings for the website, so you can expect more updates on this one over the summer.
~Tory