Todt Hill-Emerson Hill-Lighthouse Hill-Manor Heights

Understanding Todt Hill-Emerson Hill-Lighthouse Hill-Manor Heights

High Rock Park was once a Scout camp. Gretta Moulton and other advocates helped preserve it during development pressure in the 1960s, and it became part of the Greenbelt landscape.

Todt Hill’s iron resources supported intensive mining from 1832 to 1881. At Schmidts Lane, former estate land later became Todt Hill Houses and its recreation grounds. The playground’s current name honors Christopher J. Igneri, who worked with local children there from 1963 to 1995.

City Planning groups Emerson Hill, Todt Hill and Lighthouse Hill within Staten Island’s central serpentine ridge. Steep slopes and rock outcrops are part of the setting, rather than evidence that private hilltop roads or gardens are open to visitors.

On the western side of this collection, Westwood Park records a different expressway-era story. Residents helped build a playground in 1973; after damage to its equipment, the site was restored to forest by 1980. The surviving wooded block records that neighborhood change.

Places to explore

• Christopher J. Igneri Playground

  Schmidts Lane between Manor Road and La Guardia Avenue

  Choose the play areas, basketball or handball courts near Todt Hill Houses. The public recreation setting connects the mining and estate history with the later housing community. Check current conditions before a planned game.

• Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

  338 Lighthouse Avenue

  Choose the museum for Himalayan art in a stone hillside setting. The operator states that the entrance has thirteen nonuniform flagstone steps, further steps inside and no elevator. The museum is not currently wheelchair accessible.

  Read the NYFE place guide

• High Rock Park

  Nearby, reached from the Nevada Avenue area

  Choose one of the marked woodland trails and ponds. This is a separate nature destination; its presence beside hill neighborhoods does not prove an easy or step-free route through them.

Planning a visit

The museum lists the Staten Island Ferry followed by the S74 to Lighthouse Avenue. Check current service and plan the steep street approach with its access limitations.