Rosemount

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• Endangered zones: Staten Island

In the southeast part of the southernmost borough, you’ll find Rosebank, where tree-lined streets and early-20th-century homes are gradually giving way to new construction. The area is hardly in danger of full urbanization yet—but those interested in seeing it should make a pilgrimage soon, before many of its charms are erased.

Rosebank is anchored by the campanile of St. Mary’s Church (1101 Bay St at St. Mary’s Ave), built in 1857, and the slim-spired St. John’s Episcopal Church (1331 Bay St at Belair Rd), completed in 1871. They’re both worth a look, though the real attraction here is the Alice Austen House (2 Hylan Blvd at Bay St; 718-816-4506, aliceausten.org), also known as “Clear Comfort.” Built as early as 1690 as a simple farmhouse, it was converted to a Victorian cottage in 1844 by John Haggerty Austen, Alice Austen’s grandfather. And who’s Alice Austen? A quintessential forgotten New Yorker, she was introduced to photography in 1876 at age ten—and went on to become one of the city’s first great visual chroniclers. In 1985, Clear Comfort was refurbished as a museum, with Austen’s images on display. The grounds form a peaceful oasis where roosters crow at daybreak and the city seems far away—unless you’re taking in the prime view of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Down a few blocks, at St. John’s Avenue and Clayton Street, rests a ten-foot-high concrete slab stamped with the date 1935. Since this particular spot is bustling with new housing, the incoming residents may be mystified by this odd structure. It’s a remnant of the South Beach Branch of Staten Island Rapid Transit (now Staten Island Railway), instituted by none other than Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1851. This elevated line was abandoned in 1953, and
this stanchion, as well as a couple of rusting overpasses along the route, are its only remains.

Continue along St. John’s Avenue to Tompkins Avenue, turn right, and walk about seven blocks to Chestnut Avenue (Tompkins makes a slight dogleg at Hylan Boulevard). Look for the small dormered house, set back from the street behind a fence; this is the home of Antonio Meucci, the inventor of the telephone. That’s right: Alexander Graham Bell perfected the phone for voice transmission in the late 1870s, but as early as 1854, Meucci (who immigrated from Florence to Havana in 1835, then came to NYC in 1850) had created a device that transmitted sound over copper wire. Despite years of court proceedings, Meucci died in poverty in 1889, uncompensated for his invention. (In 2002, the U.S. Congress passed Resolution 269, recognizing him as the telephone’s true inventor.)

But that’s not all: Meucci had a good friend named Giuseppe Garibaldi, the future military hero of Italy’s unification, who lived here with him between 1851 and 1854. As a result, the house was eventually turned into the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum(420 Tompkins Ave; 718-442-1608, garibaldimeuccimuseum.org). Don’t ever say Staten Island hasn’t produced anything worthwhile.

From the Staten Island Ferry, take the Staten Island Railway to Clifton Station, or the S51 bus to Hylan Blvd.