Precolonial and colonial period Originally, Staten Island was inhabited by the
Munsee-speaking
Lenape Native Americans. The Lenape relocated during different seasons, moving toward the shore to fish during the summers, and moving inland to hunt and grow crops during the fall and winter. The present-day area of New York City was inhabited in 1624 by
Dutch settlers as part of
New Netherland. and then leased for 54 years by John Bard in 1765. Fort Hill, one of the hills overlooking the harbor, was the location on Duxbury's Point or Ducksberry Point, fortified by the British during the
American Revolutionary War.
Hessian troops, contracted by the British, were stationed near the Jersey Street brook, After the end of the war, the area remained primarily rural through the early 19th century. Tompkins then expanded the Van Buskirks' old farmhouse, using it as his primary residence. He died in 1825. Tompkins's property on the North Shore was sold in April 1834 to Manhattan developer
Thomas E. Davis, who continued to buy land through the following year. Davis came to own all the land on Staten Island's northeastern shore, bounded to the south by Victory Boulevard, to the west by
Sailors' Snug Harbor, and to the north and east by the waterfront. He planned to develop the area into a summer retreat called
New Brighton, renaming Shore Road to Richmond Terrace, and the first five
Greek Revival summer bungalows were erected in 1835. Davis sold the development to a five-person syndicate for $600,000 in 1836, and the New Brighton Association was incorporated that April. The area on the northeast shore thus came to be called New Brighton.
Increasing development Development on the New Brighton street grid proceeded according to a plan that surveyor James Lyons had created in 1835. Streets were arranged around existing topography. Work on the street grid and development of the land continued, but in March 1837, one major investor declared bankruptcy following the
Panic of 1837. The association continued to lay out streets. However, in 1840, four of the five original New Brighton Association investors' properties were
foreclosed upon.
St. Peter's Church on Carroll Street, dedicated in 1844, was the island's first
Roman Catholic house of worship; it remains one of Staten Island's most historically important churches, with more than half of the island's Catholic churches having been derived from St. Peter's parish. Two Greek Revival houses remain on the waterfront, at 404 and 272 Richmond Terrace. By the 1840s and 1850s, New Brighton including modern-day St. George began to develop into a summer resort area. In addition to the existing Pavilion, hotels in modern-day St. George/New Brighton included the Peteler (later St. Marks) Hotel, as well as the Belmont Hotel. Additionally, new houses such as
Italianate villas were built, while existing Richmond Terrace mansions were expanded or received new annexes and gardens. During this time, many new houses were designed in the
Second Empire style and/or as
duplexes, particularly on as-yet-undeveloped plots along Westervelt Avenue or St. Marks Place.
Late 19th century The
New Brighton Village Hall was built in 1871 and was one of the few Village Halls to remain from the old village system that existed before it was merged with New York City. A passage from an anonymous author in the
Illustrated Sketch Book of Staten Island, NY: Its industries and commerce, from 1886, describes New Brighton as follows:The village of New Brighton is unique in its attractiveness. Its public buildings, churches, hotels and institutions are all handsome and substantial, its residences the perfection of refined taste; it has of streets, the principal of which are wide, well paved, and generally well shaded with ornamental trees. A complete system of sewerage has been adopted. The inhabitants are filled with a sense of local pride which is in itself most commendable and leads to the happiest results, the most noticeable of which perhaps is the great care bestowed upon their private residences. The neighbors seem to vie with each other in friendly emulation as to who shall keep the smoothest lawn, the neatest fence or the most graceful fountain. As a whole, the effect is most pleasing, but when the eye wanders beyond the artificial beauty of its immediate surroundings and rests upon the sparkling waters of the incomparable Bay of New York, with stretches of cultivated landscape in the distance, the picture is singularly lovely and complete. The
Panic of 1873 resulted in a near-cessation of building activity on the North Shore. By the late 1870s, industries had started to move to the area again, such as J. B. King and Company, whose plaster mill opened in 1877. The
St. George Terminal opened in early 1886, bringing more development to the neighborhood. The completion of new transportation options also resulted in further real estate development, especially around the areas close to
New Brighton and St. George stations. Developers such as
John M. Pendleton and
Anson Phelps Stokes constructed cottages and houses in the northern part of St. George, while existing property owners expanded their properties. Many newer houses, meanwhile, were designed in the
Queen Anne,
Shingle, and
Colonial Revival styles. Although Staten Island as a whole remained largely residential and less densely populated and developed than the surrounding region, the inhabitants of the region favored consolidation with the greater metropolis. In 1898, Staten Island was consolidated with New York City, and this move accelerated development of the region. At this time immigrant groups settled in New Brighton in greater numbers; Italians and African-Americans along the Kill Van Kull, and Jewish communities on the eastern boundary of the village near St. George and Tompkinsville.
20th century In the years after unification, the North Shore became quickly urbanized, and the political and economic center of Staten Island shifted to the region. The area's first secondary school,
Curtis High School, opened in 1904. The ferry service to Whitehall Terminal was transferred to municipal operation the following year. Other city services were also brought to Staten Island following unification, such as schools, emergency facilities, new roads, and utilities including an underground water supply. Neighboring St. George became the civic center of Staten Island, with a new
Staten Island Borough Hall built in 1906 and the
Richmond County Courthouse in 1919. This provided the impetus for improvements in infrastructure, including road construction, police and fire protection, and two commuter airports on Staten Island that were established in the 20th century. Navy and Coast Guard outposts could be found on the north shore of Staten Island, each employing local residents in military and civilian capacities. Staten Island and New Brighton thrived economically. Larger manufacturers employed many local residents;
Procter & Gamble,
US Gypsum, and several other factories provided jobs for thousands of residents. The Procter & Gamble factory, opened in October 1907, operated for more than 80 years. At the end of the 1920s, some of the borough's first apartment buildings and four-family dwellings were concentrated in New Brighton. One such apartment building collapsed in a storm in 1937, killing nineteen people. The 1964 opening of the
Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, allowed for a massive population and development boom that continues to this day. This, combined with the closing of many area factories, the construction of housing projects along Richmond Terrace and the surrounding area, and an increase in area poverty, caused large changes to New Brighton. ==Demographics==