PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF STATEN 
Vor. VII. No. +5. 
An informal meeting of the Association 
was held at the Staten Island Academy. 
The following communication, prepared 
in accordance with a request made at the 
last meeting, was presented by Mr. J. B. 
Hillyer : 
EXTRACTS FROM OLD NUMBERS OF THE 
RICHMOND COUNTY MIRROR. 
As mentioned at our last meeting, 
through the kindness of Mrs. Abram C, 
Wood, of West New Brighton, our Asso- 
ciation has come into the possession of 
several copies of the first newspaper 
printed on Staten Island, the ‘‘ Richmond 
County Mirror,’? a paper which began 
publication on or about August 5th, 1837. 
The copies donated are : 
Vol. I, No. 3, Sept. 2, 1837. 
ae iy “cc 4, “é 16, ss 
“ uf oe 5, ce 30, a3 
Peak) “i ae) DeeA23;"n i6* 
“I, “ — May 12, 1838. 
SE te os Aare 4, * 
Pe age ray | *"(part) 
“ce II, oe 3, ee 18, ¢é 
“ee II, ‘se 4; oe 25, “ce 
SenrER cs SS Sept z)'s * 
ira AS 6 Ex, Out, r3z°* 
In looking over these papers of an 
earlier day and generation the contrasts 
between them and those of the present 
time are startling ; not alone the peculiar 
quarto paper, tough and fine, nor the 
kind of type, smaller in the body, broader 
in the titles, simpler and plainer in the 
headings and head-lines than those most 
familar to us, but particularly are we im- 
pressed with the choice of matter found 
between the covers. The editor, Francis 
L. Hagadorn, of New Brighton, seems to 
ISLAND. 
MaRCcH 11th, 1898. 
have been a man of considerable educa- 
tion, of a good literary style, careful in 
his choice of articles, whether original or 
selected and withal a keen student of the 
politics and statesmanship of his times. 
Of special interest to Staten Islanders 
is a wood-cut of the ‘residence of Geo. 
A. Ward, Esq., just completed at New 
Brighton.’’ This is the house on the cor- 
ner of Richmond Terrace and Franklin 
avenue, now familiarly known as ‘The 
Castle.’”? Mention is made of the com- 
position of which the walls were made as 
something new, economical and at the 
same time handsome and ornamental. 
‘‘This building, ‘the editor says,’ is a 
sufficient curiosity to start half the world 
on a pilgrimage to Staten Island; it is 
finished throughout in the most chaste 
and elegant manner, and gives a pic- 
turesque character to the neighborhood.”’ 
This is in Vol. I, No. 3. 
Again, in Vol. II, No. 3, appears a wood- 
cut, this time of the “Front Elevation of 
the New Brighton Pavilion.’”’ The central 
part consists of two stories with a dome 
“ above, connected by a single-story build- 
ing on either side with a two-storied 
building, each of the three main buildings 
being finished in the Greek Temple 
style a short single-story wing on the 
right and a much longer similar wing on 
the left completing the group; quite 
different from the present building but 
easily recognizable. In an editorial the 
building is called the ‘‘chef d’euvre of our 
richly ornamented little island. * * * * 
The centre building was first projected as 
the private residence of Thomas E. Davis, 
Esq. * * * * The colonnade in front of 
the bnilding is more than two hundred 
