Grasmere, Staten Island
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Grasmere is the name of a neighborhood located on the East Shore of Staten Island, New York. The island makes up one of the five boroughs of New York City, the USA's largest city.
Sir Roderick W. Cameron a founding member of the American Jockey Club, buried in the province of Ontario in St. Andrews, Canada, named his summer estate after Grasmere in the England's Lake District, his birthplace. The fact that there are many small lakes and ponds in the vicinity — most notably Brady's Pond — may have reminded him of his home village. The other pond bares his surname, Cameron, as well as Roderick Ave. is reminder of this Englishman. His stone manor was built on what is currently Radcliff Rd. and also built three similar, but smaller stone houses (gingerbread-looking) across from his main house (a mote of sorts was built surrounding the back of the house, that has since been remodeled.) The gate house to his former estate existed until the mid-1980s on the southeast corner of Steuben St. and W. Fingerboard Rd. where the X13 express bus stop picks up commuters to Manhattan. Today three "luxury" townhouses stand on the old gatehouse's property. Sir Cameron connected Australia to New York Harbor via a three-masted iron barque sailship he purchased in Glasgow, Scotland in 1887.
The neighborhood has always been one of the most prestigious communities on Staten Island, with the zone around Brady's Pond being particularly affluent. Legend in the neighborhood is that at the bottom of Brady's Pond lays a covered-wagon used as a prop in a silent film in the early 20th Century. The name of the film is unknown.
The Staten Island Railway stops in the neighborhood, the distance between its station there and that of Clifton to the north being the longest between any two stations on the line. Grasmere is also the location of the executive offices of the Staten Island Advance, the island's daily newspaper.
The S78 and S79 (to Brooklyn via the Verrazano Narrows Bridge) make stops along Hylan Blvd.
The film Easy Money with Rodney Dangerfield opens with the exterior of a house on Hylan Blvd. near the intersection of Hylan Blvd., West Fingerboard Rd. and Sand Lane. The house is a few doors down from the S78/S79 southbound Bus Stop across the street from a mini-strip mall between Sand Lane and Linwood Ave.
In music, second drummer of Twisted Sister, A. J. Pero grew up on West Fingerboard Rd.
In television, One Day At A Time's Glenn Scarpelli grew up on Normalee Rd.
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