Spooky Staten Island

👻 A grand stone manor house has stood for centuries on Staten Island’s southern shore– overlooking the Raritan Bay. Built circa 1680, it was inhabited during the Revolutionary War by Colonel Christopher Billopp, who owned the house and surrounding lands. Like many wealthy New Yorkers, he remained loyal to the British crown.

The house was the site of failed peace negotiations, during which patriots including John Adams & Benjamin Franklin met to discuss an end to the war. Their conference was unsuccessful, and 7 years of bloodshed passed before the United States achieved independence. These events gave the Conference House its nickname.

But the Conference House has another claim to fame. It's the scene of one of Staten Island’s oldest ghost stories. As early as the 19th century, locals claimed that the Billopp House was haunted. A caretaker who lived there during this time delighted in sharing tales of the supernatural with visitors, taking particular care to point out a blood stain on the floorboards that could not be washed out. It was believed that a murder had taken place there: Legend holds that a servant of Colonel Billopp’s had been approached by American patriots to spy on the master of the house. Whenever he was home, she would light a candle in an upper window as a signal. When Colonel Billopp discovered this plot, he flew into a rage and threw the girl down the stairs, killing her on the spot.

Other legends report the apparition of a female spirit seen within the house and around the grounds: a young maiden who had been wooed by Colonel Billopp. But when the Colonel deserted her, she died of a broken heart. Those who slept in a certain room of the house reported being awoken “at midnight, by a sweet feminine voice murmuring a plaintive song.”

Still others have claimed to see apparitions of Native Americans, treading silently through the surrounding woods, by night. The area around the Conference House is also home to a site called Burial Ridge—the largest known Native American burial ground in the NYC metropolitan area.

Photo: Billop House / Library of Congress

When Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt died in 1877, he was one of the wealthiest Americans who ever lived. Born to humble beginnings on Staten Island, his transportation empire of steam ships and railroads changed the face of the country.

Most Staten Islanders have heard of The Vanderbilt Tomb. It's a huge, church-like structure built into a hillside, separated from the rest of Moravian Cemetery by an imposing gate. It has been one of our borough's most iconic structures since its construction.

But that grand tomb was built long after Commodore Vanderbilt's death. When the Commodore died, he was actually interred among the humbler headstones of Moravian Cemetery's oldest section (adjacent to its church building) in a much smaller mausoleum.

This smaller tomb, which still stands today, was described as “a subterranean vault about thirty feet square laid in cement. This is entered through a small granite temple, of Doric style, above which stands a shaft of thirty feet in height. The statue of 'Grief' which adorns the temple is very beautiful as well as an appropriate addition to this costly place of sepulcher."

This photo depicts the weeping statue that stands atop the original Vanderbilt family mausoleum in Moravian Cemetery. She is identified simply as "Grief." The sculpture clutches a shroud, shielding her face. Her brow is furrowed with emotion.

Here, the commodore's funeral took place on a snowy January day. Though his estate was valued to exceed the holdings of the United States Treasury, his funeral was restrained. One contemporary newspaper reported: "Simplicity and careful avoidance of pomp and display marked every part of the funeral arrangements."

"Here the railway king expects to be laid," one newspaper mused, "far from the roar of his locomotives or the whir and excitement of Wall Street and the Stock Exchange."

While the famous Vanderbilt tomb is privately owned and off-limits to the public, this smaller structure can be seen anytime the cemetery is open.