365 Days In A Life - January 19

At one time in my neighborhood's history - and not too long ago - this building was a small school. At that time it was surrounded by trees and woods. In fact, it still (mostly) was when I moved here 23 years ago. By that time, the school had been replaced with a newer and larger school to handle the influx of children which had occurred since Staten Island was connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazano Bridge in 1964. At the time I first arrived here, this building was occupied by a supermarket. Today is is an Allstate Insurance office.

But if you look closely - and hard - at the stonework at the top of the building, you can still see that it used to say ...

PUBLIC SCHOOL 5.