ST. MARK'S PLACE, NOS. 340-348
Between Fort Place and Victory Boulevard
NOVEMBER 30, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 271

ST. MARK'S PLACE, NOS. 340-348
Between Fort Place and Victory Boulevard
NOVEMBER 30, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 272

On the same day she visited Rosebank (Abbott File 269, and 270), Abbott took two photographs of three Victorian houses in St. George, Staten Island's business and civic center near its ferry terminal. One photograph features numbers 340 (left) and 344 St. Marks Place, both built before the Civil War. Placed high on Fort Hill and commanding grand views of the Narrows, these houses were hemmed in by the postwar growth and in the 1880s, moved closer together and enlarged. A second photograph provides greater context, showing no. 348 St. Marks Place, which was built in the 1880s, and the Brighton Heights Reformed Church, dedicated in 1864.

Commercial development eventually overtook St. Marks Place, and office buildings replaced the Victorian houses. Today the area is in decline, with abandoned properties everywhere. In June 1996, the 132-year-old Brighton Heights Reformed Church was destroyed by fire.

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