Sea View: Embolishment of The White Plague

Sea View Hospital was not always a hospital, it started out as a poor house in 1829 called The Farm Colony. In its day it was extravagant and prestigious, very well known. When the hospital opened as Sea View Tuberculosis Hospital on October 28, 1912 it was considered to be the finest in the country for the treatment of TB, also known as 'the white plague'. In all there was 8 patient buildings that formed a semi circle, a children's hospital, and a rehab center that had 6 units. In all the total amount of beds the hospital had was 1.402, but with added beds it could accommodate 1,682 beds. The largest amount it ever held was 2,000 in a census that was taken in 1940-41. The final cost of the hospital was four million dollars, which was twice the amount that was originally estimated.

 

The buildings where decorated with beautiful, and expensive Terracotta murals. I have in fact seen them on the old broken down buildings and wondered why no one has taken them down to preserve. A lot of fancy and expensive things in Staten Island where decorated with Terracotta because of the factory on the island at the time. But the story is different for these because they were made by a company in Holland called Joost Thooft & Labouchere. They made the murals using a technique called Sectile. The difference was that each piece of the terracotta was shaped to the lines of the design, instead of the design being divided over a number of tiles. This company was the first and only at the time to do this between the years of 1900 - 1910. This makes these murals very rare and actually, the best sectile work in America. The architect that designed the hospital, Raymond F. Almirall sketched out these murals to add something a little light to the atmosphere. They where extracted from the decaying buildings sometime after 2005 and now hang in the main building.

There is so much to be said about this place that we now see as ruins and haunted by its mental patients, but was it even a mental ward? 

 I can find absolutely no evidence to support the claim that Seaview was ever a mental hospital. I think what gets people confused, is that the Willowbrook State School was very nearby. The school wasn't built for years after Sea View was, but that school was knocked down and Seaview still remains. We pass by it all the time on Brielle Ave. It does look scary so I guess we just assume that it has a violent history, but in fact Sea View was a historical place where many discoveries where made. By the 1960's the medical staff at Sea view was discovering new medicine, they invented something called isoniazids, this was a treatment for TB. With the new medicine the demand for TB beds went down drastically and therefore Sea View in a way put itself out of business. This medicine, along with fresh air cured TB. The hospital was advance, they even had special houses that had ceilings that opened up to let in the fresh air. In whole the campus had 37 buildings. According to Wikipedia this is the list of houses:  Administration Building (1913), Surgical Pavilion (1913), Nurses Residence (1913, addition 1932), Staff House (1913), Power House / Laundry and Ambulance Complex (1912, addition 1935), Kitchen and Dining Hall Group (1912), and Women's Pavilions (1909-1911). Sanatorium additions include the Auditorium or "New Dining Hall" (1917, now known as Colony Hall), Group Building (1917), and Men's and Women's Open Air Pavilions (1917). Later buildings include the Catholic Chapel and Rectory (1928), City Mission Chapel or Chapel of St. Luke the Physician (1934), Pathology Lab (1927-1928), Children's Hospital (1935-1937), Sputum House (1911 / 1932), and Richmond County Isolation Hospital (1928)

 

Because the hospital was going to go out of business with the cure of TB, the Farm Colony was turned into a 1,400 bed hospital for older patients with aging problems such as Alzheimers. Since then Sea View has stuck with its purpose of being a home and hospital as well as a rehab center for older patients as well as younger ones with brain injuries or other server injuries. If you ever find yourself visiting Sea View, make sure you stop by the museum that is housed right on the site, it takes you on a visual walk though on the history of the place. 

This is only the 1st post I am doing on Sea View, this post is to simply cover the past of the hospital, such as what it really was and what good it actually did for history and TB. The next post I do will be more about the Sea View we see today, the abandoned and presumed haunted Sea view. As well as my own stories, since after all I spent two years going to school there.

 

With Due Respect to Those Lost in the Devestating Crash Of 1960, 50 yrs later

2010 marked the 50th anniversary of what history calls The New York Air Disaster. To read up on the terrible disaster refer here, to my post about it . I am going to post people's memories that I was reading on a different site. This is important, just because these tragedies happened before our time does not mean people didn't die, they shouldn't be forgotten by any means. They say if you know where to look, you can still find the evidence of the event, such as debris that is still rusting in one mans backyard.

I was a second grader at St. Augustine’s School on Sterling Place, one block from the Pillar Of Fire Church on 7th Avenue that took a direct hit. My mother’s friend Benny, maybe Bernie, was selling Christmas trees in front of the church and was, in her word, vaporized. No trace. Same for the few praying parishioners inside. From my desk, I saw a piece of flaming wreckage falling through the air and seriously considered that the Second Coming might be upon us as the Mother Superior came on the squawk box to tell us to get under our desks. I remember my late mother telling me later that the pilot(s) had seen the flag on top of my school and others and was trying to crash in Prospect Park but couldn’t make it. She must have been freaked. A plane crash a block from your daughter’s school?
My late uncle Mike was NYPD SWAT and so he came to school to get me and then to the nursery school to retrieve my sister. They would not release us into the street to walk home, of course. As I recall, he walked me home basically with his hands over my eyes. Was the body of one of the planes in the middle of Flatbush Avenue for several days? There was wreckage everywhere for a very long time, and I imagine there were body parts in the beginning, but I never saw any blood that I remember. Firetrucks, ambulances, sanitation trucks.
I’d like to observe that as a result of this crash in the midst of the Urban Renewal movement, given the devastation to the neighborhood, there was a call to raze thousands of brownstones and put up “projects,” the same buildings we now rejoice to see imploded in a big bang. Park Slope (which in those days included what is now called Prospect Heights) was not a well-to-do neighborhood. Irish-Italian working class with the highest concentration of Irish bars in America occurring along Flatbush from the Bridge to the Park. There were always, however, fancy people in the buildings along Prospect Park West and Eastern Parkway, and along 8th Avenue, which we called “Doctor’s Row.” These people banded against the Urban Renewal projects and instead created the first Historic District in New York City, a most enlightened result. Hats off to the late Evelyn Ortner, with whom I studied in the country’s first Master’s program in Historic Preservation at Columbia University and later at St. Ann’s in Brooklyn (now grown to St. Ann’s Warehouse) and all her partners in this effort.
Rest in peace, every one.

— Janine Nichols

This was worldwide headline news.
I remember this even though I hadn’t yet lived in the city of New York at the time!
It wasn’t long after this that I started flying on commercial airliners back and forth from New York City to Bangor, Maine.
We just can’t spend our lives living in fear.
— Perley J. Thibodeau

I was an intern at Kings County Hospital that tragic day. We received word two planes had crashed over Brooklyn. We sent out medical staff and ambulances to the site. In the ER we discharged patients to floors and cleared out the ER. We set up dozens of clean beds with IV Bottles hooked up and ready to administer, The medical staff was greatly saddened and upset when we were told there was no one coming to our hospital. As I recall the lone survivor was taken to Methodist Hospital.
We all felt helpless. The docs and nurses ,when they came back, commented how unprepared they felt because of a lack of planning and equipment. Thankfully now much has changed in preparedness. Lessons learned.
— Louis Cardi, MD

I lived in Atlanta and this touched me as a ten year old in 1960- I was almost the same age as Steven. I am a videographer and made this tribute video of the crash which I shared with members of the Baltz family.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaVywv17Q4c
thanks for the articles and look forward to reading more. as for “season to be jolly” this is more to the fragility of life and the hearts that reached out to Steven Baltz.
— mike brown

 

My father is a retired NYC Fire Department employee. He was a fireman on Staten Island at the time of this crash. He assisted in the recovery of bodies from the TWA plane. To this day he talks about this crash and vividly recalls how horrific it was.
— Greg Z.

The day of the crash

it is one of those events that you’ll remember as long as you live, i was in the kitchen visiting and talking with my grandfather at his home on 18 street ,about a mile from the accident site, we were stunned by the sound of the crash, it sounded like a bomb and to tell the truth being that those were the days of the deepest cold war when everybody was building atomic shelters, i thought it was an atomic bomb.on one hand we were relieved when we found out later that it wasn’t but still we were saddened by the loss of life both on air and on the ground.
— turiddhu

My family’s dear friend Herman Muller was killed in that crash. He lost the joy of his life and so did we.
He was an exciting man. On summer vacations he got my dad to help saw and chop wood for the fire of our annual big cook out of bean hole beans. During the rest of the year we’d occasionally visit his family in Hackensack, where he had built a tower in the back yard for no particular reason other than the joy of it..
I believe Herman was an ex CCC guy, and his ourdoorsy tendencies were infections. He was a great influence on our lives.
Saul Berkowitz
— Saul Berkowitz

I was in the 3rd grade at Crompond Elementary School in Yorktown Hgts., NY. The crash was announced over the loud speaker system. I remember Wendell Hoffman said his father was supposed to be on board a plane that morning. He was really scared and we were really scared for him. And my Grandpa Pete lived only a few blocks from the crash, he ran over right after it happened. He recalled that it was a terrible thing to see. Buon Natale, Nonno. Chicken Little didn’t seem so little after that crash.
As it turned out Wendell’s dad missed the plane………….
— Jeff in RI

I was sitting in a freshman class at Brooklyn College when this happened. I will never forget the sound that echoed across the borough.
— Debbie Garson

I was 9 at the time, living in Mass., and due to go with my mother and brother to visit my grandfather in Florida soon after the crash. I was glued to the news, and put up such a scream about air travel that my parents cancelled the flight and booked train tickets. During that ride between Boston and St. Petersburg I saw rural trackside poverty that changed my life.
Took me 10 years of flying to be comfortable in turbulence.
— Fraidy Cat

My late father, Ernest L. Gayle, was a top administrator of what was then the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), and offered expert testimony at the inquiry which determined the cause of the crash. The day the planes collided was my sixth birthday, and I remember hearing the news on the kitchen radio in my childhood home. I will remember it always.
— debategirl1mom

I was attending St. Saviour’s High School, about 12 streets away when that plane crashed, and we could feel it in our classroom.
The nuns had us pray for the people on the plane and sent us home early. Streets were blocked off, acrid smoke mixed with the rain, and although we were told only that there was a crash and there may be survivors, we couldn’t imagine anyone surviving that impact.
It took years for me to gather enough courage to get on a plane after that, but have flown many times since. However I am always thankful upon landing and tell the pilots and crew how much I appreciate their skill and efforts.
Marjorie
— Marjorie Riley Nagin

 

My father, returning from a business trip, was booked on the United flight. He and his co-worker were running through O’Hare to catch the flight. They passed a gate where another flight was scheduled to depart for New York. My Dad, figuring they were likely to miss the United flight, said they should just wait and take the other flight. That’s what they did.
I was a child then and I remember hearing the news and the anxious hours. My mother, his company, our whole family, thought he was dead. When he surfaced, there was such overwhelming relief. My parents are gone now and this series of articles is helping me to flesh out my memories and to realize how much this must have affected my father. It wasn’t until I read this article that I realized that my Dad died sixteen years later of cancer almost to the day (December 18, 1976) that this accident happened.
— Marilyn Miller

40 years from now there’s going to be a story like this about 9/11, though probably much bigger/widely read .And then all of us who’ were old enough to know what was going on will remember …just like these folks.
— Joe

 

 

 

I remember 12/16 /1960.
That crash took place during a bad snow storm that had started that AM. The geniuses at our Junior High in Queens literally threw us out of school at 1PM because they felt the buses that picked us up at 3PM wouldn’t make it.
None of us had boots and few had gloves or hats as the severity of the storm was a surprise.
My friends and I walked just about a mile to get home.
It was miserable.
Just one of the many reasons I hated Junior High.
When we got home the story about the collision was on all the TV stations.
— Frank Leja

I remember the collision — it transfixed the City much like 9/11 later did. The tabloids ran the story on their front pages for days. The television news media was just coming into its own in the City and covered the event and ensuing stories afterwards. One young passenger survived the crash and lived for a couple of weeks capturing the public’s sympathy.
But goodness knows — if 50 years ago that plane had fallen into any other nabe in NYC we wouldn’t be seeing this extensive write-up in Park Slope-centric CR today.
And it’s axiomatic that Park Slope (as is the case with any urban nabe) had to first decline before it could be gentrified and thus ultimately find itself home to the bulk of the NYT’s CR reporters.
That said, at the time, the plane crash seemed but another example of the decline Brooklyn seemed to be undergoing. By ‘58 the Dodgers had left and white flight was accelerating from areas like Fort Green, Brownsville, Crown Hts., East NY etc. Abraham & Straus was on its last legs as the downtown commercial center around Fulton Street went into a long-term decay. Heck, even the Heights was “in trouble”,
What a difference 50 years makes.
— George

My family lived @ 180 sterling Pl at the time of the crash. My mom thought the boiler (apt heat) had blown up. Took my brother and sister & hid under the bed. Quite a day for the Addotta family and all who lived near > One of my closest friends.. helped carry the bodies to the near make shift morgue… The Plaza Bowling Alley ! He has Never flown in a plane… .NEVER !! & never will because of this day. Says the smell still haunts him.” You never really leave a place you love… part of it you take with you, leaving a part of you behind…” : ((
I LOVE NEW YORK xoxoxox
— Joyce

 REST IN PIECE TO THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES <3

 

 

The Witch of Staten Island

The year was 1843, it was Christmas Day. In a house that once stood on Forest Ave. across from where now there is a Wendy's and a Perkins, lived sea caption George Houseman, his wife Emeline, and their 20-month-old daughter, Ann Eliza. While the caption was out at sea, as he was on this day, his sister Polly Bodine stayed with the family, as the wife Emeline was scared to be alone. All three of them slept together in one bed in a corner in the kitchen. This being because winters where so hard on Staten Island and they wanted to be closer to the wood burning stove, of course in the summer the bed was moved to a bedroom. As two boys where on their way home from a skating party at 9:00 pm, they noticed a fire blazing, it was a house on fire! The boys rang the fire alarm as fast as they could. Fires where not taking lightly, all the houses where made from wood. People from the surrounding houses came rushing to the house, although they figured that no one was home for the holidays. They knocked down the door and ran into the blazing home searching to make sure there wasn't anyone in the home. That is when they uncovered the horrific scene of a infant babies skull crushed, and her mothers throat cut, her arms broken, and what appeared to be a number of hits to the head using an axe.

Polly Bodine was no where to be found. She didn't live with her brother, she lived across the street with her father. But George's wife was always so scared of people breaking in. She even begged George to take the $1,000 in cash he kept in the house, to his mothers.

The court reports the condition of the body of Emeline as follows: ''The back part of the head was very much burned, part of the skull wanting, and the brain baked by the action of the heat. On the left arm, both bones of the forearm were broken, and one of the bones was white and clear, the other blackened by the heat. . . .'' The baby girl even worse off.

After a few days police had a suspect, and her name was Polly Bodine. No one could figure out why she would do such a thing since she was always so helpful with her niece, and kept her sister-in-law company many a nights. As far as the money that was in fact stolen, Polly had her own money. But nonetheless suspicion fell onto her. She was always at the center of local gossip, even old Staten Island was the same with the gossip. At a time when abortion was unexceptional, Polly had one, while being seperated from her husband, she was sleeping with another man named George Waite who had a drug store in Manhattan. The way she acted following the event had not worked in her favor. On Dec 26th she said she was in the city visiting her lover Waite, but she was seen on the ferry boat leaving Staten Island drinking Gin and eating pie. She was later spotted in a pawn shop, pawing items that belonged to the victims. She was wearing a hooded cape and looked completely detached.

She was arrested on New Years Eve for her crime and gave birth to a still born 3 days later. Her trial was the talk of all media outlets, reporters from all over came to report on the matter, one by the name of Edgar Allan Poe. In his own words he said ''This woman may, possibly, escape. For they manage these matters wretchedly in New York.'' All the top news papers where running stories about the case. People where outraged, a women who had an abortion and a still born, who also killed another child and the mother, ought to be killed herself.

Poe turned out to be right though, she was acquitted at her first trial because it lacked  ''circumstantial evidence in the fourth degree.'' No one really knew what this meant. Another trial went forward but was moved to Manhattan in hopes to find a jury that wasn't biased. She was convicted of the crime but somehow the verdict got over turned. On her third trial her lawyer managed to get her out of the situation completely. She was found not guilty and after spending two years in jail, her first words where " Can I sue Barnum now?" P. T. Barnum made a wax exhibit dedicated to the crime in his museum and dubbed her The Witch of Staten Island. He presented her as a 70 year old toothless hag.

Polly moved back to Staten Island with her reputation ruined. She died at the age of 82 leaving behind two grown children. The case, 152 years later remains unsolved. The final resting place of Emeline and her infant daughter Eliza sits across from a Shoprite in Granitville.

AND THE WINNER IS GRASMERE

On the recent poll that I posted on to my blog, I asked readers what town in Staten Island they wanted to learn about next. The winner was Grasmere. It isn't very rich in history, but does have interesting facts none the less. It sits on the lower end of Clove Valley, its original name was Southfield, and was founded in 1683.

Sir Roderick W. Cameron who was a founding member of the American Jockey Club played a big part in the development of the town Grasemere. He built his dream house in the town and named it after his birth town Grasmere, which was apart of England's Lake District. Many believe the reason behind this was that this town reminded him of his birth place due to the amount of lakes in the area. One of the more popular ponds in the area in Brady's pond, also known as Grasmere's pond. Brady's pond was named after Philip Brady, a man that purchased the land around 1800. Another pond in the area is Cameron Lake, although only the expensive homes that surround it get to benefit from the beautiful view. Roderick Ave. is also named after the founder as well. He had also built a stone manor on what is now Radclif Rd., along with 5 other smaller ginger bread looking houses across from his house. Also a gate house to his estate stood on Stuben and W. Fingerboard up until mid-1980's. The Sir had a shipping company that connected New York to Australia. The main town in the area is Concord, Grasemere is just a division of it, along with Dongan Hills, Emerson Hill, and Old Town. Well at least in the 1800's it was this way. At this time Grasemere was the most exclusive place to live in Staten Island. The woods surrounding Brady's pond was once called Haunted Woods due to a murder that was committed in the area. 

Most of the more extravagant home built in the area around Radclif Ave, Lakeside Pl, Leslie and Whitney Ave, as well as Hillside Terr., where built by famed architect Ernest Flagg.

 Another interesting fact is the beginning of Easy Money, staring Rodney Dangerfield, is filmed on the intersection of Hylan Blvd and W. fingerboard, and Sand Lane. Also the second drummer to the rock group Twisted Sister grew up on W. Fingerboard.

Ichabod Crane

Everyone knows The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the famous character Ichabod Crane as well as the headless horse man, but Ichabod Crane was actually based on a real person, and hes buried on Staten Island, in Bulls Head.

The writer of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving created the well known school teacher that moved to Sleepy Hollow from a friend or rather an acquaintance that he knew. He wrote this story and also Rip Van Winkle to give America some of their own legends to tell. At this time America had only stories of Indians to talk about while Europe had the Brothers Grimm. So Irving created some American folk lore so to speak.

Irving and Crane met in Sackets Harbor, New York during the War of 1812, meeting him actually in 1814. The book was published in 1820 and Ichabod was horrified. He and Irving had only known each other briefly while Crane was a caption in the war. In fact they had only met twice but Irving liked the way his name sounded. Though the name is the same the characteristics are based on someone else.


Ichabod Crane died on October 5th 1857 in Staten Island. His tomb stone was in bad shape and had been hit up by spray paint, it has since been replaced.

He served his country for 48 years and was much beloved and respected by all who knew him

Lina Morgana - Far Away [Official HQ Music Video]

Lina Morgana - That American Girl

Three years ago, these two young women working together under the guidance of producer Rob Fusari. And then, their paths have separated, and their destinies, opposite. Because at the beginning of October 2008, Lina Morgana, aged 19, committed suicide by jumping from the tenth floor of a building

Lina Morgana

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/jumper_at_staten_island_hotel.html


http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/woman_jumps_from_staten_island.html

Lina Morgana was a very talented beautiful young women. She was just about to be signed to a major record label and release her C.D. So what could have happened to a young girl filled with promise to make her want to end her life? When Yana, her mother 1st came forward she was pointing the finger at Lady Gaga saying that she stole her daughters look. This is very much true in my opinion, though I do not believe that EVERYTHING she does comes from Lina I just think that she took a few things she thought would make her famous, after all Lina is no longer around to object. Everyone thinks that Lady Gaga killed Lina, but she didn't. She sure as hell shows no acknowledgment to Lina or any kind of thanks but she is not her killer. The story runs deeper then that. In Linas music she talks or sings actually, of being abused. For example pretty much every song she has out that we are able to hear is about being sad and used, and being lost in prescriptions for depression. She was upset on October 4th, 2008, she was upset and called one of her friends to tell him about how she wanted to kill herself, and that her boyfriend was abusive and she couldn't take it any more. So she met up with her friend who took her out to get some food and calmed her down a little. That night she had to perform at a charity event, so she had to collect herself. Instead after she got dropped off at her home in Aspen Knolls, Staten Island, she made her way down Richmond Ave to where The Staten Island Hotel sits. Somehow, and it really is unsure how, but she got up onto the roof. 10 stories up she calls him, her boyfriends and as I can imagine she told him what was about to happen to her, as some witnesses say it "appeared" she was exercising or dancing frantically on the roof before just jumping off the front. Her boyfriend i assure you is living with this guilt day to day, but he will never talk. The hotel was undergoing renovations at the time, so when Lina jumped she actually hit off the scaffolding and that broke her fall so when she hit the ground she was still alive. She was in fact alive all the way to the hospital, she was alive knowing what happened and where she was going, but she was pronounced dead at Richmond Hospital. Cops found a car in the parking lot with Illinois plates on it. And her myspace did say she moved here from Kentucky. 

the 1st story I did on Lina- The story goes that the two where introduced with hopes of collaborating and making it big together. Lady Gaga was supposed to be the song writer while Lina was to be the singer. They recorded a few songs together, but Lina was the main focus at the time. Today, October 4th marks the 2 year anniversary of her death. It is said that she commuted suicide by jumping off the top of the Staten Island Hotel on the morning of. The eerie thing is I can find pretty much NOTHING online about her death. The only thing i could pull up was the article in the Advance about the ordeal, but at the time she wasn't even identified yet. There is nothing even updating the post in the Advance confirming that it was in fact Lina, all the other post have to do with the recent uproar. 

Its all very weird .. why would a beautiful young 19 year old, who had worked hard for half her life to pursue a dream, commit suicide? And further more, why would Lady Gaga become Lady Gaga in only 2 months after? I mean the two were friends, or is the industry that cut throat. Don't get me wrong I love Gaga, but after watching Lina and hearing her songs, I like her as well. I can't help but wonder though what really happened, or if it really is as dry cut as suicide. She really was beautiful, a friend of mine who's husband is a Paramedic saw her being brought in to the hospital by stretcher, he said that she was so beautiful that people where actually staring at her while she passed even though she was already deceased. I honestly can't blame her mother for the recent accusations, the women was a single mother and that was he only daughter. They came here from Russia when Lina was younger for a better life. My prayers go out to her mother, that is a pain i could never imagine, or endure. 



Update: I took this from www.linamorgana.com

A Message from Lina's Aunt:Dear friends, whenever you are in the world!

Please allow me first to thank you for the attention you are giving to our girl Lina. I am her aunt writing now from the family name. We appreciate deeply your admiration of Lina as an artist. We are thankful for your concerns, your expressed empathy. We understand your questionings and your assumptions of the cause of her death, because her family has kept silence for so long. Please try to understand Lina's mother who is still struggling with grief.  The shock of losing her daughter shut her down. I can tell you one thing right now: we, Lina's family, do not believe that she had an intention to die. We, as a family, do not believe that Lina committed suicide.

Two years ago Lina was at the start of her career. She was full of plans for the future. She was three weeks away from participating in the Miss New York beauty pageant. Her CD of songs was ready to be released. Now it is on hold. Lina's mom Yana wants only ONE thing -- for Lina's songs to be released... for Lina's voice to be spread, for her gift to be shared with the world. Isn't it fair to ask for the girl's dream to finally come true?

What is your opinion about Lina's songs to be released? We would really appreciate your feedback.

Tatyana, Lina's aunt.



UPDATED 1/13/2011
I found this on a website this was taken from her myspace. Remember these?


* 10 Random Things About Me *

1. My name is Lina Morgana.

2. I'm 19

3. I moved to NYC from Kentucky --- yee-haw!

4. I'm presently not signed. Major labels have been courting me, but my gut is to wait for the right deal. I don't want to jump into bed with a stranger and in the morning roll over & say “what was I thinking?” But I am signed to a publishing deal with Sony Publishing which I’m happy about, I think?!

5. My music can be heard on realty shows on MTV & VH1; even the Oxygen station; if you know that network… it’s a chick channel…. Also, you might hear me in-store at Urban Outfitters and some other shoppes in Soho, East Village…Even out in England & Sweden in some of their designer boutiques and shoppes.

6. Right now I'm listening to Filthy Youth

7. I'm obsessed with You Tube!

8. I collect stray dogs & cats.

9. My favorite movie is Donny Darko

10. I'm flattered by all the date requests & marriage proposals but I'm focusing on my music career right now. (You're all so sweet!!)

LiNA
xx



                                   American Girl Lyrics.

Every year it's the same thing, hates all the teachers
Juvenile delinquent smoking weed on the bleachers
Her boyfriend's a stalker, he get's off on torture
But if she ever left him he'd be forced to not not no, wait
What's the recipe, hate induced
Got a grudge living slut smudge way too cute
Black eyeliner, lipliner, combat boots
Middle finger up to the world
(that American girl)
Love sick, hot chick Long lost innocent
Stuck in the middle of beautiful average Teenage parenting
Big dreams, navel rings Love that American Girl Latin American
Afro American Chinese You and Me We're all American girls I'm your American girl 

Rage against the system, prescription drug victim
Punk Rock and flower blossoms, dealing with depression
Ran away took the train track, month's supply of prozac
Her lover didn't love her at all
The sound of silence, drowning out the silence
Cheap booze and cigarettes, the best ????
Tattoos paint the picture, a rebel saved the lecture
Your daughter is a rollingstone, American girl to the wall

All she ever really wanted was..
for Someone to love her someone she could love
but instead she got some perv in tie and shirt
breathing heavy on the phone from work, you jerk
All she ever wanted to be
was the whip cream on top of the American Dream
but instead she's not, the tears are the truth and it hurts
and what's worse, she's only happy in spurts

Lina Morgana .. an Angel

The Big House On Richmond Hill

The Gustav A. Mayer house sits on top a hill in New Dorp on Richmond Hill Rd. It was built in 1855 and made a land mark in 1989. The house was home to famed inventor Gustav A. Mayer, who moved his confectionery business to the Island from Manhattan. The house was originally built for David R. Ryers, and older man who was robbed by the New Dorp Highway Robbers in 1897.


Mayer was a entrepreneur who was very successful in the many things he took interest in. His shop was located in Stapleton to be close to the upscale section of Staten Island. Gustav was the inventor of the sugar wafer and also made desirable Christmas tree ornaments when they became a chic possession. He sold the sugar wafer to Nabisco who now owns the rights to the cookie. His ornaments where so desirable because of the shiny smooth tin and hand painted detail. He closed down his shop and moved his business into his house 


Members of the Mayer family still live at the location and are renovating the house to restore it to its original splendor. They upkeep the land it sits on the same way Gustav did when he ran the house.

Greenridge & The abandoned Highway.

                      As a teen living on Annadale Rd. i often walked to Greenridge to meet up with my friends. There werent many places for kids our age to go hang out and not get chased away by cops all night. I would walk to Greenridge and meet up with the rest of my friends knowing that they would be there ( this was before everyone had a cell phone). I would walk down Dorval till it hit the Korean War Vets and like everyone else cross through the abandoned highway. We would all hang out on that highway, away from people that could yell at us and of course cops. I remember always thinking about how that highway got there and where was it supposed to be going anyway? I've walked all the way up it literally leads to no where. I'm sure I am not the only one who thought about this, because we've all talked about it. Well I found out the answer as to how it got there and why it never got finished, along with a couple more interesting facts.

                  In 1921, on the corner of Aurthur Kill rd and Richmond ave were safari golf now sits, sat a amusement park and restaurant call Al Deppe's. It was an indoor play ground with small rides and pin ball machines, a beautiful carousel that was imported from Germany, as well as shooting booths for target practice. . The owner who opened this place also bought a mansion built in the 1850's across the street, known to me and you as the Elks Club. 

              

After buying the house, Al built a 200 ft tunnel that ran from his house to the restaurant across the street so that he could go back and forth with money and other such valuables unnoticed and unharmed. Some people say Al was so paranoid he actually hid some of his money in the tunnel for safe keeping and that its still there today. Along with this tunnel there are a few other tunnels that lead to various locations in the area, some dating back to the civil war era as legend has it. Before the construction of the Korean War Vets and the West shore Richmond Ave was the only way to travel from Eltingville, so of course this place did very well and was a well known establishment. They were best known for the hot dogs and their fresh clams.

          And so the story always ends the same, in the late 1960's or early 1970's the city wanted to build a better way to travel the Island, and proposed the building of The Richmond Parkway, currently the Korean War Vets, and Al Deppe's stood right in the way. So the place was condemned and knocked down to make way for the exit off the Parkway. As we know this never came about though there are 4 over passes ( 2 on each side) that were built, along with a street sign, and paved roads with guard rails and all. The plan was to make a quick exit from the Richmond Parkway to the Staten Island Expressway, it was to cut though CSI as well, however it was never even fished due to a change of plans.It must have been a heartbreak for the Deppe family and other people who frequented the spot.

1947

*Any pictures and info about any topic would be great.

Cropsey: the Staten Island booggie man...

                             I am only 23 years old, so i wasn't aware of this story growing up on Staten Island. I have heard about just about every other story this island has to offer, I mean this is said to be the most haunted borough. We have Richmond Town, Sea View, The Farm Colony... I could keep going.. and I will get to these stories sooner or later, but what got me was the story of cropsey. I was flicking through the channels and came across a commercial about a documentary that's to be aired on channel 23 (if you have timeWarner cable) on Friday at 9 pm. I figured if they were making a whole documentary about this then it may be worth exploring. So i googled it, of course. And so here is what i came across.

Alice Pereira

It was the 1980's, at the time, the island was much less populated then it currently is. It was a very family oriented place with more wooded areas then the other 4 boroughs. There was an urban legend called cropsey about an escaped mental patient ( no surprise there) that lived in the woods and would pray on little kids. This was mostly passed along by kids trying to scare each other or parents trying to keep their children close by and keep them from wandering out of the neighborhood. But in the 80's an urban legend took on its own real life antics when children around the island started going missing. Enter Andre Rand, who worked as an orderly in the Willowbrook State School in the 1960's. As it turns out he actually lived on the grounds after the closing of  the Willowbrook school at various make shift camp sites he set up in abandoned buildings and also in the under ground tunnels that ran under the institution. 

Holly Ann

        The 1st girl to grab attention but no the 1st to go missing, and the only one who's body was recovered  was 12 year old Westerleigh girl Jennifer Schweiger, who had down syndrome. She disappeared on July 9th 1987 and was found later in August of that same year. She was found in a shallow grave near the abandoned building. Andre Rand was the last person to be seen with her alive for whatever reason a 42 year old homeless guy is the only one with a 12 year old not to mention a young girl with down syndrome is beyond me. It took over 30 days of searching and combing the island to find this girl. He was arrested but only convicted of kidnapping, not for murder and is currently serving 25 years to life. But if you thought it ended there it doesn't. In 2004 Andre took the stand again facing charges on kidnapping and murder charges in the case of  7 year old Holly Ann Hughes who went missing in 1981, before Jennifer was taken. She was playing with her friends near a local Port Richmond deli. A witness saw a green Volkswagen shadowing her. Witness Elsie Caban, says she saw this car about 6 times over a 2 hour span moving closer to Holly and her friends. "The Volkswagen moved next to the tracks on Park Ave.," Caban said, recalling how she had previously seen the car up the street. 

Jennifer

"Now, the car was on the other side of the street with the children around down by the trestle." Caban said she first saw the car parked outside her Park Ave. home in Port Richmond and across the street from where her children were playing with Holly Ann outside the child's home. A short while later, as Caban walked to a deli to buy soap, she saw the car parked near the railroad tracks. Caban testified that the last time she saw Holly Ann was between 9:30 and 9:45 p.m. as the child strolled alone on Ann St. toward Port Richmond Ave. Caban, who was on her porch, said she noticed several minutes later the Volkswagen was gone. Perhaps the strangest twist in this story is that the sales clerk that was working that night at the deli remembered Holly come in and bought a bar of ivory soap. He said she came in at about 9:30 pm to buy a bar of soap and she was a nickle short. Why is this strange? Well because Elsie Caban stated that she too went into that same deli and bought a bar of soap, and according to the clerk she too was a nickle short. Andre has admitted to being there and states that he actually gave the girl money and told her to go buy a bar of soap because she was dirty. Oh no it doesnt end there, Rand is also likely connected to the kidnappings of additional girls: Tiahease Jackson, 10, who disappeared Aug. 13, 1983, out of The Mariner's Harbor Hotel where she was staying with her family. Her mother was asleep around 1:30 pm and a neighboor asked her to run to the store for her. She was never seen again after buying chicken wings at Crown Supermarket, 900 Richmond Ave.; and Alice Pereira, 5, who disappeared on July 10, 1972, near her apartment in the Tysens Ln area of the New Dorp section, several miles southeast of Willowbrook. She vanished after her brother left her alone for all of 5 minutes. Audrey Lyn Nerenberg is another girl about the age of 18 although she had the mentality of a 14 year old when she was taken. She lived in  Flatbush, Brooklyn but was at a theater on Staten Island the day before her disappearance on July 5th 1977.  The theater is the former Jerry Lewis Theater that was on Forest Ave., not far from Rand's makeshift campsites. Audrey was last seen at her house in Brooklyn where she told her mother she was going two blocks away for a pack of cigarettes. Though her father received a call claiming to be the abductor, and demanding ransom, she was never seen or heard from again. He has also been linked to the disappearance of Ethel Atwell and the rape and murder of Shin Lee, both Willowbrook aides. 

Tiahease Jackson

                     Andre Rand has not given cops any extra information to help solve any of the cases, and to this day no body knows exactly what happened in the events leading up to the death of little Jennifer and the others. Few speculate that he passed some of the girls around among his friends, who knows if this is true. What really gets me is that this could have all been stopped before it all started. His first encounter with the law was May 25, 1969, when he some how got a 9-year-old Bronx girl into his car and drove to a vacant lot. He took off his clothes and hers, but a passing police car interrupted the crime. Charged with attempted rape, Rand pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to four years. He served 16 months. In 1979, he was accused of raping a young woman and a 15-year-old girl, but neither pressed charges. In 1981, he offered a 9-year-old girl a lollipop and tried to lure her to ride in his Volkswagen. When she refused, Rand followed her to her home and searched for her while she hid under a rug. No charges were filed. And in January 1983, he drove to a Staten Island YMCA, lured 11 children into his van and drove to Elizabeth, N.J., where he bought them White Castle. He then took them to Newark Airport, where they watched planes arrive and depart. When he brought them back to the YMCA five hours later, Rand was charged with unlawful imprisonment and served 10 months in jail. Of course he and his lawyer maintain his innocence saying  that Rand was "thoroughly investigated at the time. . . . His photograph was shown to persons who had seen Holly Ann Hughes shortly before her disappearance and none of them have identified [him] as having been near or with the child on July 15, 1981."

Audrey

            In a letter Rand wrote he said that that he has been the victim of "a slanderous/scapegoat article resurrecting [so-called] 'notoriety,' thus encouraging hostility against plaintiff. Focusing and arousing public attention toward plaintiff from so-called 'missing persons' old cases - such persons plaintiff has never met!" In a jailhouse interview with The News in 1987, Rand repeatedly lied to a reporter, saying he had never met Jennifer Schweiger. Though he changed his story real quick at trial, after his defense lawyer learned there were several witnesses who saw him with his bicycle leading the trusting little girl with Down syndrome by the hand away from her house toward the woods at Willowbrook. And inmates have said that Rand in his own words  referred to him self as similar to Ted Bundy notorious women killer. "You know me and [Ted] Bundy are alike in many ways. We both used Volkswagens. Bundy's thing was women. My thing is kids. . . . Do you think the police could figure that out?" Andre also boasted to inmates that no one will ever find Holly's remains. He also asked a prison mate where he could find a porn magazine similar to his but with children instead. 

The search for Jennifer

Even 20 years later Friends of Jennifer, a group of people that dedicated much efforts to the recovery of Jennifer, still search the Willowbrook area once a year in hopes to recover anything that would help any of the cases against Rand.