Staten Island NY All the Beauty of Nature None of The Isolation of the Country
Kendall Waldman for The New York Times
A bucolic hillside neighborhood with a link to a celebrated 19th-century poet offers privacy, big old trees and easy Verrazano Bridge access.
It’s not surprising that the 19th-century transcendentalists were attracted to Emerson Hill on Staten Island: The neighborhood still has a measure of the natural beauty of the wilderness that first attracted those poets and philosophers.
Abounding in beeches and oaks of great height and age, the area is named for William Emerson, a former resident and a brother of the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a frequent visitor along with the likes of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. Up a hill that has only two unassuming entrances, this neighborhood of just over 100 houses hidden in thickets has retained anonymity even by the standards of an island borough — a kind of side benefit of its geography.
By ALISON GREGOR
Before George Marchese bought his four-bedroom home here about a decade ago, he had never heard of Emerson Hill.
“I lived on Staten Island for 10 years, 12 years, and I didn’t know it existed,” Mr. Marchese said. “I used to drive by it all the time, and one day there were balloons out there at the bottom of the hill, where it says ‘No Through Traffic,’ and it looks like a giant driveway. A sign said ‘Open House,’ and I said: ‘What the heck is this? You can go up this hill?’ ”
Mr. Marchese did, and made an offer on the house as soon as he saw its tree-trimmed property and the sprawling views from its back deck.
“To the left was the city, to the right was New Jersey, and right in dead center was the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge,” he said, “and it was so beautiful. The agent came out and said, ‘You want to see the rest of the house?’ And I said, ‘No, I just want to make an offer.’ ”
The current estimate for that house, for which Mr. Marchese paid about $900,000 a decade ago, may be almost $1.2 million, he said; it has appreciated far less than he had originally hoped. But the value has been in enjoying the property, where sightings of deer, raccoons, opossums and birds are frequent, he said.
“We’ve loved every minute of being here,” said Mr. Marchese, a tree consultant by trade, adding that the house, just minutes from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, gives him easy access to all the boroughs for his work. “We have all the holidays here, and the kids love it. The grandchildren come and run around this house in the trees — it’s like a castle for them.”
Mr. Marchese says that Emerson Hill reminds him of a rustic mountain town in Italy, and for good reason. Spread over about 150 acres, the neighborhood has winding streets that in some places are too narrow for two cars to pass. Many houses are on terraced properties and perched high above the street.
Styles range from Swiss chalet, English Tudor and center-hall colonial to the more contemporary; many houses have pools. In that, the area is comparable to nearby Todt Hill, one of Staten Island’s most affluent neighborhoods. But Emerson Hill has a less manicured, cultivated feel.
Residents can join a homeowner’s association; its fees maintain some of the landscape as well as street lamps and entrance gates at the foot of the hill. But the gates are always open, Mr. Marchese said.
“There’s no guard or anything like that,” he said. “You can just drive right up. Everybody’s pretty nice here.”
What You’ll Find
The area is a haven for professionals, mostly doctors and lawyers, from different ethnic backgrounds, said Catherine McCarthy-Turer, an agent with Stribling & Associates who as a child often stayed with a close relative in Emerson Hill. “I spent the majority of my childhood there,” she said, “and it’s this incredibly bucolic setting that’s remained really unchanged for decades.”
In area it is typically seen as bounded by Clove Road or the Staten Island Expressway to the north and Richmond Road to the east. Of the two entrances, one is on the north side at Emerson Drive, the other on the east side at Douglas Road. The neighborhood, consisting of those roads and several others that branch off, has about 105 families, according to Larry Lettera, a president of the Emerson Hill Civic Association.
“Douglas Road is the main road,” Ms. McCarthy-Turer said, “and you have all these sort of small little roads that jut off of that, and some are hidden little treasures.”
The neighborhood once consisted of several large estates; it didn’t formally come into being until the late 1920s and early 1930s, at the hands of a prominent Staten Island developer named Cornelius G. Kolff. Its history is still apparent in the layout of its streets. Ms. McCarthy-Turer said that Overlook Drive, where she stayed as a child, was once a lawn-bowling green for residents.
Kendall Waldman for The New York Times
17 Wilsonview Place
A four-bedroom four-bath home with bridge views and a pool, listed at $1.175 million.
(718) 605-5800
A four-bedroom four-bath home with bridge views and a pool, listed at $1.175 million.
(718) 605-5800
“The original estates were really quite large,” she said, “and then over time some have been broken up. New houses have been developed slowly over time — and they’re quite large houses, ranging in size from 3,000 to 6,000 square feet.”
What You’ll Pay
The neighborhood consists solely of single-family homes, of which there are typically only a handful on the market at one time; in early November there were five. There has been limited development, in the form of teardowns of older, smaller housesmake way for larger ones.
“It’s the kind of area where people come, and they stay,” said Traci Cangiano, the owner-broker of Cangiano Estates in Staten Island.
Prices start at around $800,000 and top out at several million dollars, brokers say. Of the few sales so far in 2013, the highest price, $820,000, was paid for a 3,000-square-foot brick-and-stone colonial on an 11,000-square-foot lot on Douglas Road, Ms. Cangiano said.
The Commute
Emerson Hill, fairly centrally situated, is “extremely peaceful and secluded — a private oasis — yet it’s two minutes to access the Staten Island Expressway and five minutes to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and intoBrooklyn,” Ms. McCarthy-Turer said.
It takes about 20 minutes to drive into Lower Manhattan, and about 30 to reach Midtown. The Grasmere station of the Staten Island Railroad, which takes commuters to the ferry on the North Shore, is about a five-minute drive or a 20-minute walk; other commuters opt for the many express buses that stop at the foot of Emerson Hill, among them the X10, X14 and X15.
What to Do
Residents describe Emerson Hill as a retreat from the busy world where your yard is a park. But it isn’t as cut off from activities as that image might imply. Pastosa Ravioli, an Italian specialty food company, is a few blocks away on Richmond Road, as is Carol’s Cafe, which also serves as a culinary school. The Richmond Country Club in neighboring Todt Hill, a short drive away, has swimming, tennis, golf and dining.
For more shopping options, Richmond Avenue is home to the Staten Island Mall, one of the largest on the island, about 15 minutes’ drive. Ms. Cangiano says residents will have easy access to the New York Wheel and Empire Outlets, the shopping center to open on the North Shore sometime in 2016.
The Schools
The area has several private schools, as well as a public school, No. 48 William C. Wilcox, in a new building on Richmond Road. The school currently serves prekindergarten through Grade 6 but will be adding Grades 7 and 8 in coming years. Chosen as a National Blue Ribbon School in 2011, Wilcox got a B on its latest city progress report, with 77.2 percent of tested students showing mastery in English and 87.3 percent in math, versus 47 and 60 citywide.
Many children from Emerson Hill go to private schools like the all-girls’ St. Joseph Hill Academy and the Staten Island Academy. Both teach prekindergarten through Grade 12. Just north of the Expressway from Emerson Hill are the Staten Island branches of St. John’s University and Wagner College.
The History
Though sometimes described as being in Todt Hill, the two Longfellow Avenue Tudors used as the Corleone compound in the 1972 movie “The Godfather,” are considered by many to be neighborhood landmarks, said Constance B. Lane, a longtime resident.
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