We’ll look at the historic uses of the Olmsted farm beach. Interesting information on this shoreline by house occupants Frederick Law Olmsted, Dr. Samuel Akerly, and Erastus Wiman and the Woods of Arden Inn will be featured. We’ll also take a look at the lively parallel history of Midland and South Beaches during the late 1800s.

The history of such unique sites as the proposed New York State Quarantine at Prince’s Bay, Mount Loretto, Saint Michael’s Home, Seaside Hospital, and the Sea Breeze home that operated on the Eltingville shoreline will all be featured.

We will examine the lives of important and influential South Shore Staten Island personalities such as Dorothy Day, Nathaniel and Elizabeth Britton, Paul Zindel, Jasper Cropsey, Paul Castellano, Ricky Schroeder, Father John Drumgoole, Pete Davidson, and of course Frederick Law Olmsted and his friend William H. Vanderbilt!

Join us for an in-depth look at Wolfe’s Pond Park, High Rock Park, Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve (where Carlton Beil taught thousands of us about nature!), the Arden Heights Woods, the Mount Loretto Unique Area, and, of course, the Olmsted-Beil House Park. History, wildlife, habitats, rare and endangered species, and more will be examined.

Some of Staten Island’s most noted historians have documented stories of spirits from one end of the borough to the other. We will recount these tales around an outdoor campfire at the Kaasmann House.