You never know what you're going stumble upon walking the streets of Staten Island.
One Sunday I went on a walk with my husband up Van Duzer. Usually when we take a walk in the neighborhood, we go up to Saint Paul and marvel at the gorgeous victorians there. This time we chose to walk on St Paul's little sister Van Duzer Street. Van Duzer is a small one way street that cars unfortunately zoom down. On the sides are guard rails and often there are accidents. But there are some houses and small buildings that are adorable. There are also parcels of land rich with trees adding to the charm. Usually I pass by all that in a car going to Home Depot, when I'm not as observant.
We stumbled upon a large piece of land with a large rock jutting out of it taking up most of the area. A sign on the fence welcomes passerbys to the Serpentine Commons.
As it is open to the public, we walked through an opening in the fence and started climbing up the rock. It was steep and crumbly. As we made our way up, small rocks were tumbling down the rock face. I looked back and watched them bounce all the way down. I thought about how painful that would feel and became nervous. But it was too late to climb back down in my sneakers and I wanted to get to the top. More small rocks fell and I started to panic. I didn't want to fall, so I flatten my body against the rock where I felt safer and got a real close-up of the rock. Wow! It was gorgeous! Green, yellow and brown - it looked like a huge semi precious stone!
My husband saw my predicament offerd help. I didn't see how he could without risking his safety, so I took some deep breaths, pushed the fear aside and told myself that I will make it up. My husband excitedly urged me to come up and check out the view. I carefully climbed pretending I was a mountain sheep herder or some similar fearless person. Once I got there, I looked. An amazing panoramic view of the harbor!
After we pointed out to each other different buildings we could see from such a height, we went up further. There were brambles and we could see no way to get to the street without cutting across private property. So we took another path down the side that was less steep. Trees were on both sides with birds chirping and rustling. At one point there were no buildings visible, yet we were still within New York City!
As we reached the bottom, we heard some boys laughing and talking. One waved to us and said hi. How wonderful to grow up and have this beauty and peace available, I thought. I was so glad I overcame the panic earlier and had this mini-adventure. Perilous rock climbing, wilderness exploration, sightings of distant civilization, gorgeous nature - right in my neighborhood. I had to know how this beautiful land came to be.
The next day after searching the internet I found some answers. Apparantly in October of 1970 a developer bought the land and began to try to re-grade the steep slope so that residential building could exist on it. Neighbors brought the developer to court and by December the project was brought to a grinding halt. Unfortunately by then bulldozers removed tons of native soil leaving it looking like an abandoned strip mine.
According to Earthcache, what was underneath, now exposed, is a group of minerals that form serpentinite, the colorful rock. Over time exposure to the air and elements weakens the rock. It begins to crumble and change colors, which explains my sliding a bit as I ascended the hillside. I imagine that traffic, like my climb, up the exposed rockface doesn't help preservation and I don't recommend it. The hardworking custodians of the Commons carefully created other paths for visitors to enjoy.
On the areas where the topsoil wasn't removed, green milkweed and slender knotweed still grow. Pheasant are among it's inhabitants and there are plenty of wild raspberries to support their existence. The hillside rises 209 feet above sealevel - hence the gorgeous views of the entire harbor.
The official name of the park is The Serpentine Art and Nature Commons. It's located on Broad Street where Van Duzer and St. Paul intersects. There are memberships available that include invitations to monthly meetings and a newsletter. The group's activities include maintaining the area and its paths, preservation and erosion control, building drainage structures, landscaping, pursuit of new land acquisition, walking tours and periodic events.
There you go - yet another gem on the Isle of Staten!
Thanks to George Bramwell, President of the Serpentine Commons. Resources: Earthcache and The Serpentine Art and Nature Commons.
Towards Manhattan
The New York Harbor and the North Shore
Trees on a slope
The path down
NYC?