The Great World’s Fair of 1964: Staten Island Was There
Sunday, November 30, 2025, 2:00 PM
Welcome to Friends of Olmsted-Beil House!
Support FOBH in our efforts to promote and restore the Olmsted-Beil House historic site.
Welcome to Friends of Olmsted-Beil House!
Support FOBH in our efforts to promote and restore the Olmsted-Beil House historic site.
Welcome to Friends of Olmsted-Beil House!
Support FOBH in our efforts to promote and restore the Olmsted-Beil House historic site.
Credit: Eileen Monreale
Help Restore the Historic Wraparound Porch at the
Olmsted-Beil House – Staten Island, NY
Thanks to The Staten Island Foundation’s “Diamond Matching Grant,” Friends of Olmsted-Beil House is able to match donations, tripling new funds up to $50,000, equaling $150,000.
Funds providing a 2-for-1 match will be directed to restoration of the wraparound porch and will help support the growth of programs, infrastructure, and capacity needed to advance our mission. Learn more about this campaign »
Upcoming Events
Historic Movie Houses & Movies Made on Staten Island
Sunday, December 14, 2025, 2:00 PM
The Great World’s Fair of 1964:
Staten Island Was There
Friends of Olmsted-Beil House Presents
Join Pat Salmon for a look at Staten Island’s participation in the 1939 and 1964 Great World’s Fairs. What groups participated? Which exhibits were featured? Who was the man behind the 1964 World’s Fair? Where did parts of that Fair go after it closed? Don’t forget to share your favorite memory of the Fair. Was it the Sinclair exhibit? Brooklyn Union Gas’ Festival of Gas? The Dunlop Tire Ferris wheel? It was a grand time for all!
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2025, 2:00 PM
SPEAKER: Patricia M. Salmon, FOBH Historian and a Curator of History, retired,
from the Staten Island Museum
SAINT ALBAN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
76 St Albans Pl, Staten Island, NY 10312
THIS IS A FREE EVENT
Advance Registration is Required.
Write to salmonf@aol.com to register.
In the News
FOBH Goes to School
Photo Credit: Paula Tramontano
July 2025—Friends of Olmsted-Beil House (FOBH) has been introducing Staten Island students in grades 3 to 5 to the field of landscape architecture with its innovative Discover Landscape Architecture classroom program. Developed by FOBH Treasurer and retired educator Paula Tramontano, the program has reached approximately 1,400 students since its inception in the 2022-2023 school year.
New Land Acquired for Olmsted-Beil House Park
Photo credit: Google Maps/Giuseppe Settinieri
October 2024—Friends of Olmsted-Beil House (FOBH) is delighted to announce that the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (“NYC Parks”) has acquired a 1.2-acre parcel of privately owned land, at 4485 Hylan Boulevard, in Eltingville on the South Shore of Staten Island, as an addition to the 1.58-acre Olmsted-Beil House Park.
New York State capital funds for NYC Parks’ purchase of the property were appropriated through an arrangement organized by New York State Senator Andrew Lanza, in whose district the park is situated.
This property, which abuts Olmsted-Beil House Park, was formerly part of the original parcel of 130 acres owned by Frederick Law Olmsted immediately prior to his commission, with Calvert Vaux, as designer of Central Park. The addition of this property to the boundaries of the park restores a significant part of Olmsted’s Tosomock Farm.
Photo credit: Patricia Salmon
The newly acquired property features a Swiss chalet–style house, built in 1910, and includes the descendants of trees planted by Olmsted, tended for years by FOBH Board member Tina Kaasmann-Dunn. NYC Parks purchased the property from her. With her parents, she had long hoped that their family property would be preserved in perpetuity as open space and become City-owned parkland.
“Selling my family home was the hardest, most gut-wrenching thing I ever had to do,” Ms. Kaasmann-Dunn said, “but knowing that it will be preserved together with the Olmsted property gives me great comfort. Indeed, after watching the vast acreage of the original [Olmsted] farm fall to the bulldozers, and hundreds of houses be built in our woods, my parents hoped that our slice of Olmsted/heaven would be saved.”
FOBH and the Olmsted Network advocated for the addition of this property to Olmsted-Beil House Park for the protection it will provide against development and its preservation of the viewshed of the park to Raritan Bay. The new property also improves access to the park, now gained directly from Hylan Boulevard, a major
thoroughfare. The previous park entrance was through a shared-access easement with private, residential property owners.
FOBH awarded grant from The Staten Island Foundation
Friends of Olmsted-Beil House (FOBH) has received a grant from The Staten Island Foundation to contract with an historical architecture firm to prepare an historic preservation plan and schematic design for the Olmsted-Beil House. Frederick Law Olmsted lived at the Eltingville farmhouse and its 130-acre property from 1847 to 1855.
The farmhouse is a New York City landmark and is listed on the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. It is currently closed to the public while it awaits restoration. The site, currently 1.35 acres, is now a New York City park, Olmsted-Beil House Park.
Friends of Olmsted-Beil House celebrates 5th anniversary
November 18, 2023–Members and supporters of Friends of Olmsted-Beil House (FOBH), Staten Island, NY, gathered in November 2023 to celebrate 5 years since the incorporation of the non-profit group. FOBH is working to generate support for the restoration of the Olmsted-Beil House. Frederick Law Olmsted lived at the farmhouse and its 130-acre property from 1847 to 1855.
FOBH was founded in October 2018 by neighbors and former residents of the farmhouse intent on protecting it from development and deterioration. Since then, the group has conducted extensive clean-ups of the property and a robust program of lectures and family programming; created an educational exhibit and a classroom curriculum about Olmsted and landscape architecture; published a map about the property and a children’s book about the trees on the farm; and held several festivals on the park grounds. It also initiated the co-naming by New York City of a street nearby the park as “Frederick Law Olmsted Way” and hosted visits to the site by Olmsted scholars Charles E. Beveridge, PhD, and Faye Harwell, FASLA, RLA, and by Olmsted Network President and CEO, and Board of Directors Chair Anne “Dede” Neal Petri and Philip Schultz, respectively.
FOBH is a member of the Olmsted Network and is grateful for the support Network leadership and members have given to efforts to protect and restore the farmhouse and to increase awareness of the house and its storied history among the local and national communities.
WNYC Radio Features Olmsted-Beil House Park in April 27, 2022 Report
In its Morning Edition show on April 27, 2022, WNYC Radio included an interview by producer Amy Pearl of FOBH Board member Tina Kaasmann-Dunn at Olmsted-Beil House Park. In the report, “Good Things: Olmsted Farmhouse,” Tina describes the improvements Olmsted made to the property, including making his first plantings ever. Upon seeing the trees planted by Olmsted, Amy exclaims, “The stars of the show are definitely the trees!”
Listen here: https://www.wnyc.org/story/good-things-olmsted-farmhouse.
Olmsted-Beil House Featured in Bowery Boys Episode
The Bowery Boys history podcast episode released on April 7, 2022–about Olmsted at the start of his career–features Olmsted-Beil House and Tosomock Farm, describing the site as “a historic place of inspiration.”
The episode can be found here ».
Many thanks to the Bowery Boys for including Olmsted’s Staten Island farmhouse in their story, and to Adrian Benepe and Olmsted 200 for championing the house and its significance.
Friends of Olmsted-Beil House Introduces Discovery Map: Olmsted on Staten Island
This map illustrates some of the Staten Island locations associated with the life of pioneering landscape architect, author and social reformer Frederick Law Olmsted. Read more »
Friends of Olmsted-Beil House Hosts Visit by Preeminent Olmsted Scholars
On Sunday, October 3, 2021, Friends of Olmsted-Beil House hosted a visit to Olmsted-Beil House Park by preeminent Frederick Law Olmsted scholars Charles E. Beveridge, PhD, and Faye Harwell, FASLA, RLA. Dr. Beveridge is Series Editor of the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, an ardent supporter of the preservation of Olmsted landscapes, and one of the founders of the National Association for Olmsted Parks. Ms. Harwell is an award-winning landscape architect and co-founder of the Rhodeside & Harwell landscape architecture and planning firm. Read more »
Press Coverage
Calls for New York State to Release Funds for Purchase of Property Abutting the Olmsted Farmhouse
The National Association for Olmsted Parks, with The Garden Club of America, National Recreation and Parks Association, City Parks Alliance, American Society of Landscape Architects, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, and Landscape Architecture Foundation, sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo to release the funds that New York State allocated to purchase 1.2 acres immediately adjoining the Olmsted farmhouse.
Olmsted: The Scientific Farmer on Staten Island
(January 15, 2021) National Association for Olmsted Parks–Olmsted 200 Read more »
Get to Know Friends
Friends of Olmsted-Beil House is the nonprofit organization protecting, preserving, and presenting the Olmsted-Beil House historic site.
Video Collection
View our extensive collection of videos about the Olmsted-Beil House Historic Site.
About the Historic Site
The Olmsted-Beil House historic site is where landscaping genius Frederick Law Olmsted pioneered many of the techniques he later incorporated in Central Park and other acclaimed, transformational projects. The site is located in Eltingville on the south shore of Staten Island, at 4515 Hylan Blvd. The 1.7-acre site and two-story farmhouse are all that remain intact of the 130-acre farm dating back to the 17th century. Frederick Law Olmsted and naturalist and educator Carlton Beil and their families are among the many owners who made their homes and located their businesses there.
In 1967, the house was designated a New York City Landmark, and in 2006, the site became part of the NYC Parks system. For safety considerations, the house is closed to the public while it undergoes restoration.