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Annadale, Staten Island

Annadale

Named in 1860 for Anna Seguine, a descendant French Huguenot and among the south shore's earliest settlers.

In 1929, Spanish immigrants purchased land totaling 17 acres along Annadale's shoreline that become known as Spanish camp or Spanish Colony. Dorothy Day, the social activist and leader of the Catholic Worker Movement, purchased one bungalow in 1972. By the 1990s however, developers had aggressively purchased the neighborhood's property. The sale forced 45 families to move and subsequently the demolishing of the buildings for upscale homes. The new development, named Central Park East preserves solely the street grid.

A city park in the heart of Annadale was converted into a wildlife preserve. Blue Heron Park Preserve covers 222 acres of woodlands, ponds, swamps and small streams which empty into Raritan Bay.

The intersection of Annadale Road and Jefferson Blvd. form a triangle of green space.  This fell under the jurisdiction of the Staten Island Borough President in 1962 but was transferred to the City's Department of Parks and Recreation and received renovations. In 1998, its name was changed from Annadale Park to Annadale Green. In 1953, a World War II memorial was erected here and in 1962 a Korean War memorial was mounted to a boulder within the Green.

Sweet Brook, fed by a pond to the south of Jefferson Blvd flows north toward Arden Avenue and features an identifying sign at Edgegrove Avenue across a rock-faced bridge.

An Arbutus tree with it's bright spring fruits. | Jym Dyer

Opposite Kingdom Avenue is Arbutus Creek.  Also nearby, Arbutus Woods Park and Arbutus Avenue are named for a native species that became locally extinct in the 1940s.


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Location: Annadale, Staten Island, NY, USA

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