A few weeks ago I made my first trip to visit Staten Island. Well here I am again. See, it’s my friend Bobby V’s fault really. After my last journey I got a message from him saying, “You’re on SI and didn’t look for the Godfather house? http://www.luxist.com/2010/12/06/the-godfather-home-staten-island-n-y-estate-of-the-day/.” Who knew? And if such an iconic treasure like this went unnoticed, what else could be out there? Let’s have a look shall we.
The Godfather
Sure enough there it was! A huge smile hit my face as I rolled up on the one time home of The Godfather.
I pulled the bike around back so as not to arouse any suspicion.
There was no one around so I checked the place out and assumed various bodyguard poses.
The pool to the left of the house was the location of the garden where Brando’s character dropped dead. That knocked over stone bench is in that scene (only it’s not knocked over).
Reaching for that shoulder holster I’m finding nothing but a stinky armpit.
This is the yard where the wedding scene takes place. It was a lot of fun walking around the grounds of this sacred movie setting. And for a mere 2.9 million bucks, it’s yours! Or, you can make them an offer they can’t refuse.
New York City Farm Colony on Staten Island
If you know this blog you already know I have a taste for the long forgotten places. I love wandering in and out of crumbling structures, finding artifacts and piecing together stories from the past. So when I read about this “Farm Colony” on Staten Island I was curious. What kind of farm was this? This was a Poor Farm. A now forgotten place for once forgotten people.
All I knew before I arrived was that there was this place with numerous abandoned buildings. I had no idea how many or their actual purpose. I was just game to explore. Come inside.
There are 4 giant H shaped buildings (former dormitories) with seemingly endless long corridors.
I visited about 9 buildings total. It was fascinating to crawl in and out of these decrepit old buildings once filled with people who truly had nowhere else to go.
I am on the third floor of this building above. To my right is a long drop into a large pile of debris once known as the roof.
The building above was the lunatic asylum and nurses quarters.
This place was a tinderbox besides resembling a pile of pixie sticks that could easy collapse with a slight tremor.
I saw a couple teen-age kids outside the last building I wanted to check out. I saw about 5 of them earlier. They were shooting stuff with pellets and paintballs. There were only two of them so I asked if the rest were still shooting inside. They said no. I went inside and headed down to the basement. Without my headlamp I would not be able to see a thing. But now I was smelling something of concern.
Those little shits were trying to burn this place down. They had draped this fabric and lit it on fire. I wish I had taken a photo while it was still ablaze, but I instinctively beat the flames out with a board. It wasn’t that bad, but damn!
I found an old map of this place online. There may be one building I missed. I guess I haven’t seen the last of Staten Island.
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