{"id":94728,"date":"2026-01-09T13:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94728\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T13:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T13:47:09","slug":"a-plumbing-shop-2-houses-and-a-world-of-change-how-busy-staten-island-corner-has-evolved-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/94728\/","title":{"rendered":"A plumbing shop, 2 houses, and a world of change: How busy Staten Island corner has evolved | Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Decades before Richmond Avenue became a congested commercial strip, it had a quieter story. <\/p>\n

In 1941, just a block from today\u2019s bustling Forest and Richmond intersection, a modest two-story building stood at 950 Richmond Ave. in Graniteville, with a plumbing shop below and living quarters above.<\/p>\n

\"950This photo from May 14, 1941, shows a diagonal front and side view of the building at 950 Richmond Ave. in Graniteville. The ground floor is brick, with large storefront windows. The inscription on the window at left says, “Chas. Mattis Plumbing.” (From the Historic Richmond Town Collection)Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n

Next door, two clapboard houses lined the street, as seen in an old NYC tax photo. The contrast between that rural scene and today\u2019s busy corridor couldn\u2019t be sharper.<\/p>\n

\"950These are the houses sitting to the south of 950 Richmond Ave. (NYC Tax Map photo)<\/p>\n

At some point, that building at 950 Richmond Ave. was torn down and, in 1975, it was replaced by a small one-story deli with off-street parking. <\/p>\n

\"950At some point, the old building at 950 Richmond Ave. was torn down and, in 1975, replaced by a small one-story grocery business with off-street parking. The site is shown in this 1980 photo. (NYC Tax photo)<\/p>\n

There is currently a strip of businesses in this location at the corner of Monsey Place.<\/p>\n

The area now hums with activity: Stop & Shop across the street, an auto repair shop, a gas station, a laundromat, and the NYPD\u2019s 121st Precinct stationhouse. Bus stops crowd the corner.<\/p>\n

And change keeps coming.<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s Dakota Diner \u2014 a fixture at Forest and Richmond \u2014 has closed<\/a>, reshaping the texture of the neighborhood yet again.<\/p>\n

\"950Today a one-story deli business with off-street parking, sits at the site. (Google Maps)\"950Mike’s Dakota Diner is now closed, which will change the texture of that block. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Decades before Richmond Avenue became a congested commercial strip, it had a quieter story.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-94728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94728","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=94728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}