Bay St Shore Acres Staten Island
This park on the northeastern shore of Staten Island occupies the site of the former estate of Arthur Von Briesen (1843-1920).
The entire park area, which opened to the public in 1949, is comprised of 10.1 acres of upland and 2.7 acres of land under water and sits immediately north of Fort Wadsworth. Frequent attempts to add active recreation facilities to this site failed as NYC Parks determined that the site remain “the most beautiful passive park in the city.” A heavily treed area when it was first acquired by the City, the park still contains some of the mature specimen trees that existed during the Von Briesen era, including red oak, horsechestnut and tulip tree.