Last month, after years spent by scores of volunteers attempting
to save one of the most iconic and historically important
buildings remaining in all of New York City, bulldozers moved in
and reduced the S.R. Smith Infirmary in Tompkinsville to rubble.
This was a tragedy many decades in the making. But by no means
was it inevitable. It has been my policy over the last 13 years
writing “Present, Past, Future,” to focus only on those
historically significant Staten Island buildings still standing.
However, with the loss of this borough treasure, I feel a need
to go back in time and relate the virtues of “the Castle” once
more. In 2003, this column chronicled the history of the four-
towered architectural masterpiece, pondering how it could
possibly be left open to the elements for such a protracted and
unnecessary amount of time, resulting in its falling further to
waste everyday. Today, in memory of and as tribute to the S.R.
Smith Infirmary, we reprint excerpts of the original column, in
the hope it will ensur