History
The creation of Historic Richmond Town was the joint effort of many Staten Islanders, led by the vision of two local historians and preservationists: Loring McMillen and William T. Davis. Fueled by the same Depression-era passion for historic preservation which resulted in the creation of Colonial Williamsburg, these men helped create a testament to Staten Island's rich history in an era of rapid development and urban sprawl.
Established in 1958, Historic Richmond Town is a joint project of the Staten Island Historical Society, an independent nonprofit cultural organization, and the City of New York, which owns the land and the buildings and supports part of its operations with public funds from the Department of Cultural Affairs. The purpose of this museum village is to make visitors feel as if they are living in the 19th century. Visitors are able to have a first hand experience of what Historic Richmond Town once was.
Historic Richmond Town holds a lot of history dating back to the 18th century. People who lived in Richmond Town were mostly of Dutch, English, or French descent. The most common jobs were blacksmiths, shoemakers, and other types of craftsmanship. You can still visit these once worked in shops to see how they made a living back then. British troops were stationed in Richmond Town during the American Revolution.
Read more about this topic: Historic Richmond Town
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.”
—Willa Cather (1876–1947)
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)