Richmond Hotel
The Hotel Richmond building in the 1940s Courtesy of NYC Municipal archives, accessed via 1940s.nyc
Known Name(s)
Richmond Hotel
Address
71 Central Ave Staten Island, NY
Establishment Type(s)
Hotel
Physical Status
Extant
Description
Hotel Richmond sits at 71 Central Avenue in Staten Island, only a block away from New York Harbor and very close to where the Staten Island Ferry docks. The short end of the rectangular building faces the road to the west.
The building is brick, four stories tall with a two-story frame addition in the rear. It has a mansard roof with dormers—two on the front and five on each side. The center portion of the front face of the building is inset, creating a space for a roof to cover the door and stoop. There is a large “hotel” sign that spans a whole story attached to the front of the building to the north of the door. Inside there were apparently 50 rooms. The building even had a partial automatic sprinkler system in case of fire.
In current images, we can see that all the visible windows have been replaced; the upper floor windows that once had arched tops are now standard one over ones. New windows have also been added, one on the second floor and one on the third floor, to the inset center portion of the building in between the two that were already there, with light colored bricks in between them. Two windows have been removed from the addition on the building’s north side.
The color of the building has also changed. A postcard, likely from the 1950s, depicts the building as blue-gray, with its bottom floor being white. Recent images show red brick, with a fieldstone veneer on the front facade by the door. A pair of awnings have been attached over the front first-floor windows as well.
Detailed History
Before the Hotel Richmond, as early as 1909, there was the Evelyn Lodge—a boarding house that was advertised as being clean, comfortable in all seasons, and the perfect distance from Manhattan (just 20 minutes). The advertisements also promised “an excellent chef” and a large dining room. There was enough demand for rooms that the Evelyn Lodge had an annex across the street at 68 Central Ave. It certainly had an excellent location; the hotel is located only a few blocks south from St. George Terminal; a rail, ferry, and bus terminal out of which the Staten Island Ferry departed as early as the 1890s. Because of the proximity to transportation to Manhattan, the area around the terminal became a civic center.
During the 1950s, and the era of white flight, industry loss caused people to leave the area. Residents did not return en masse until the 1970s, after the site stopped appearing in the Green Book.
By 1951, the Evelyn Lodge had become Hotel Richmond. By this time, the second building was no longer associated with the hotel. The 1950 census shows the proprietor of the hotel, David L Stoller, lived there with his wife, son, and daughter. They had only a handful of lodgers from across the country when the census taker visited. In 1961, an advertisement for the sale of a Hotel Richmond by a real estate agent named Guerriero appeared in the New York World Telegram and Sun. In 1968 the site was advertising again, promoting air conditioning and reasonable rates to Brooklynites. Hotel Richmond remains in operation to this day.
