Friends of Olmsted-Beil House (FOBH) is delighted to announce that the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation (“NYC Parks”) has acquired a 1.2-acre parcel of privately owned land, at 4485 Hylan Boulevard, in Eltingville on the South Shore of Staten Island, as an addition to the 1.58-acre Olmsted-Beil House Park.
New York State capital funds for NYC Parks’ purchase of the property were appropriated through an arrangement organized by New York State Senator Andrew Lanza, in whose district the park is situated.
This property, which abuts Olmsted-Beil House Park, was formerly part of the original parcel of 130 acres owned by Frederick Law Olmsted immediately prior to his commission, with Calvert Vaux, as co-designer of Central Park. The addition of this property to the boundaries of the park restores a significant part of Olmsted’s Tosomock Farm.
The newly acquired property features a Swiss chalet–style house, built in 1910, and includes the descendants of trees planted by Olmsted, tended for years by FOBH Board member Tina Kaasmann-Dunn. NYC Parks purchased the property from her. With her parents, she had long hoped that their family property would be preserved in perpetuity as open space and become City-owned parkland.
“Selling my family home was the hardest, most gut-wrenching thing I ever had to do,” Ms. Kaasmann-Dunn said, “but knowing that it will be preserved together with the Olmsted property gives me great comfort. Indeed, after watching the vast acreage of the original [Olmsted] farm fall to the bulldozers, and hundreds of houses be built in our woods, my parents hoped that our slice of Olmsted/heaven would be saved.”
FOBH and the Olmsted Network advocated for the addition of this property to Olmsted-Beil House Park for the protection it will provide against development and its preservation of the viewshed of the park to Raritan Bay. The new property also improves access to the park, now gained directly from Hylan Boulevard, a major thoroughfare. The previous park entrance was through a shared-access easement with private, residential property owners.
“The addition of the Kaasmann House property almost doubles the size of the park,” said FOBH Board President Eileen Monreale, “providing further preservation of an important site to tell the story of Olmsted’s and Staten Island’s history. It will also provide opportunities to invest in science, to safeguard species, and to provide educational programming. Friends of Olmsted-Beil House extends our immense gratitude to Tina Kaasmann-Dunn and to New York State Senator Andrew Lanza for their support, time, and energy to ensure this most important addition to the park.”
New York City Parks acquired the original 1.58 acres of Olmsted-Beil House Park, including Olmsted’s farmhouse, in 2006. At that time, Parks announced, “The historic house will be used for educational purposes and the surrounding land as a public park.”
This story originally appeared on the Friends of Olmsted-Beil House and is republished here with their permission.
