{"id":148262,"date":"2026-02-28T10:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148262\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T10:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T10:52:08","slug":"its-home-family-says-rossville-churchs-deeper-value-cant-be-found-in-history-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/148262\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s home\u2019: Family says Rossville church\u2019s deeper value can\u2019t be found in history books"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Noelle Jordan fondly remembers the tiny candies lovingly hidden for her in the organ bench at the Rossville AME Zion Church.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Yvette Taylor-Jordan, recalls the empowerment she felt within its walls when society tried to knock her down decades earlier.<\/p>\n

The historic building at 584 Bloomingdale Rd. represents a resilience woven into America\u2019s history, they say, but it\u2019s more than a page in a textbook or a city landmark designation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s home,\u201d says Taylor-Jordan. \u201cAnd I think so many of us feel that way. This is where I go; this is where I live; this is where my extended family congregates and I\u2019m a part of that … that\u2019s just what we do.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her daughter says the church was the center of her youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the only child of an only child of an only child, so me having my Rossville and my Sandy Ground family … I never felt like an only child,\u2019’ she said. \u201dIt was home.”<\/p>\n

A great aunt, Augusta Mosley or \u201cAunt Gus\u201d was the church organist she remembers fondly. \u201cAnd my grandmother, Yvonne Taylor, was the pianist.\u201d Aunt Gus was the candy source.<\/p>\n

And something good was always going on after Sunday School and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would always be food or an event or something,\u2019’ Taylor-Jordan recalls.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1849 by Virginia-born minister William H. Pitt, the place of worship became a critical stop on the Underground Railroad and was known as the \u201cFreedom Church\u201d because of its role in the abolitionist movement. <\/p>\n

In post-Civil-War years, the structure that replaced it in 1897 continued to thrive as a nurturing place of worship for a community of Black American farmers and oystermen from Snow Hill, Maryland, making a living from the abundant oyster beds of the Raritan Bay.<\/p>\n

The businessmen owned land and prospered when much of the country denied them that opportunity.<\/p>\n

Today, it is still \u201ca path of least resistance\u201a\u2019\u2019 says Jordan, 37, a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., who has a successful career in lighting entertainment. \u201cWe are all the result of silent prayers.\u201d <\/p>\n

The community nurtured nine generations of Jordan\u2019s free descendants, who were born or lived in the community, she says proudly. It is recognized as the nation\u2019s oldest free Black settlement still inhabited by descendants.<\/p>\n

A small membership of about 35 worships today under the leadership of the Rev. Charles Washington and welcomes others \u2014 much as has been done since the church was founded in 1849.<\/p>\n

Worshippers also tune in via Zoom from other cities and states, life having drawn them from Staten Island.<\/p>\n

\"YvetteFamily photos show Yvette Taylor-Jordan’s ancestors, Steven and Rebecca Gray. Their daughter, Rebecca Gray Landin, owned a boarding house 1482 Woodrow Rd., which still stands today. Taylor-Jordan would like to see it restored. (Courtesy of Yvette Taylor-Jordan)(Courtesy of Yvette Taylor-Jordan)\u2018It shows hope\u2019<\/p>\n

But it is more than a sanctuary and an altar, the two women say. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows hope,\u201d says Jordan. \u201dIt\u2019s a finish line from the horrible and a starting point to a better future. For me, I can say, in my life now, I\u2019ve been kind of similar.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite a career that has taken her around the world and back, Jordan still says she considers the church and Sandy Ground community her anchor. <\/p>\n

She wants future generations to know of its place in history. <\/p>\n

In the newly refurbished basement of the sanctuary, the two women recently joined other descendants of Sandy Ground to tell the Advance\/SILive.com Editorial Board <\/a>that it\u2019s not just the landmarked structures, like the Rossville AME Zion Church and surviving homes of the community that tell the story of Sandy Ground \u2013 it\u2019s the many generations of proud residents whose success they attribute to the church and its history. <\/p>\n

\"HistoricThe Rev. Isaac Coleman and Rebecca Gray Coleman home at 1482 Woodrow Rd. as it stands today in 2023.(Staten Island Advance\/Jason Paderon) <\/p>\n

Jordan is the third generation in her family to earn a college degree, she says proudly. Her mother taught history for the Newark Board of Education for 18 years, served the administration of New York City Mayor David Dinkins as a policy analyst and consulted in South Africa after the fall of Apartheid. <\/p>\n

\u201dI\u2019m sure where we are now and how far we\u2019ve come is beyond my ancestors\u2019 wildest dreams\u201a\u2019\u2019 Jordan says.<\/p>\n

The sanctuary remains largely unchanged since Jordan first attended services with her mother, long before she became aware of the generations that came before her.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, I didn\u2019t realize what a rarity my family and Sandy Ground was\u201a\u2019\u2019 she said. <\/p>\n

\"HistoricBuilt before 1859, the Rev. Isaac Coleman and Rebecca Gray Coleman home at 1482 Woodrow Rd. Is a vernacular frame structure that was granted landmark status by the city in 2011. (Photo courtesy Sandy Ground)<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until a high school friend was blown away by the number of family photos on the piano that she realized what a blessing it was. \u201dShe was like, \u2018Wow, I can only go back to my grandparents,\u2019\u201c Jordan recalls.<\/p>\n

Both Jordan and Taylor-Jordan recall childhoods centered around religious services, Sunday School, lively community gatherings and camaraderie. Though both women currently live in Delaware, they remain active members of the church and consider its members their family. Taylor-Jordan is chair of its board of trustees and Jordan is a member of the church\u2019s tech team.<\/p>\n

\"YvetteYvette Taylor Jordan is shown in Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church on Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025.(Owen Reiter for the Advance\/SILive.com)<\/p>\n

Other Sandy Ground properties, too, hold treasured memories, Taylor-Jordan said.<\/p>\n

Her great-grandparents\u2019 mid\u201119th\u2011century vernacular <\/a>frame home at 1482 Woodrow Rd., now a New York City landmark, entered their lineage through her ancestor Rebecca Gray, who first married Rev. Isaac Coleman and later, after his death, married Robert Landin. Her great grandmother\u2014also named Rebecca, known as Rebecca Gray Landin\u2014 lived in the house for decades. The home later became a rooming house in the mid-1800s.<\/p>\n

Dubbed the Reverend Isaac Coleman and Rebecca Gray Coleman House by the city Landmarks Commission, it is believed to be one of the oldest surviving structures of Sandy Ground. <\/p>\n

It was in that house that Taylor-Jordan was introduced to Rossville AME Zion Church, where she continued to worship despite the family\u2019s move to Eltingville when she was 4 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would really gravitate there and they had a way of expressing themselves, unlike in other areas\u201a\u2019\u2019 she said, using the racism she experienced in Eltingville as an example. She was the only Black person in her class from kindergarten through 12th grade during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n

\u201dI had a wonderful childhood,” she stresses, noting that there were still subtle signs of racism despite having many white friends and great relationships while growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was still chased home from PS 55,\u2019’ she recalls. \u201dSomeone wanted my lunch money. I didn\u2019t give it up. There were rats left on my sidewalk. Two dead rats. I remember that so vividly.”<\/p>\n

\"SandyFrom left to right, Jerome Moody, Janise LaBoard-Casimir, Lucille Herring and Yvette Taylor-Jordan stand in front of their beloved Rossville AME Zion Church in historic Sandy Ground on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.(Advance\/SILive.com |Jason Paderon)The hub of the community<\/p>\n

At the church, though, it was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike so many other African American towns or churches, the church is the hub\u201a\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201dBecause we didn\u2019t have so much power in the community, you got your power in church.”<\/p>\n

Power and respect came in the form of positions held within the church, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201dYou got your affirmation as a community in church\u201a\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cYou learn about not only your religion, but the importance of you as an African American person. For kids, that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church was a beacon in the community for so many decades, she said. <\/p>\n

The church facade was designated a New York City landmark in 2011, while the community landed on the National Register of Historic Places in September 1982. Its nearby cemetery also bears city landmark status, though it shows signs of vandalism of late and is in need of a fence repair. <\/p>\n

Across the street from the church sit two tiny landmarked homes dubbed the Baymen\u2019s Houses, which were owned by oyster bay workers and their families in the 1800s. Today they are uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

Today, Jordan, Taylor-Jordan and a group that was traditionally focused on worship is now stepping up to make preservation of this historic community their main focus. Though the group has yet to formally apply for grants or appeal for funding to preserve the landmarked structures, the wheels have begun turning, they say.<\/p>\n

\"YvetteYvette Taylor-Jordan proudly displays a quilt depicting her family lineage at the Rossville AME Zion Church on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jason Paderon)<\/p>\n

The present day church building still maintains its vernacular frame structure from fenestration window pattern and gabled porch, but was reclad at some point in time with faux brick siding. <\/p>\n

Jordan showed the Advance\/SILive.com a historic family quilt, passed down from her great-grandmother. The red and yellowed-white quilt once hung on the outside of church, a symbol to escaping slaves searching for a safe refuge during their journey north to a new, free life before the Civil War.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe formation, the pattern is very significant\u201a\u2019\u2019 Jordan said. \u201dThe flying eagle formation signified a safe place for rest. It would hang outside of the church in this orientation with the eagles facing down, indicating that this church was a safe place to rest.”<\/p>\n

If the story of Sandy Ground, including the painful memories of slavery, doesn\u2019t teach you anything, it teaches resilience, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201dIt\u2019s woven into the fabric of the country,” she said. \u201cIt\u2019s woven into the fabric of the state. It\u2019s part of American history.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to help<\/p>\n

If you would like to help the members of Rossville AME Zion Church with their fundraising efforts that will benefit repair of the landmarked structures in the community, visit: rossvilleamezionny.org\/giving<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Noelle Jordan fondly remembers the tiny candies lovingly hidden for her in the organ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-148262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}