The Akerly Homestead was a large farm on Staten Island

Staten Island

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...

 given to Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...

 in 1848 by his father to grow crops, plant trees and clear for pasture for livestock. The farm was originally named the Ackerly farm, and had a modest Dutch farmhouse on one of the higher hills overlooking Raritan Bay

Raritan Bay

Raritan Bay is a bay located at the southern portion of Lower New York Bay between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey and is part of the New York Bight. The bay is bounded on the northwest by New York's Staten Island, on the west by Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on the south by the Raritan...

, and Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook is a barrier spit along the Atlantic coast of New JerseySandy Hook may also refer to:-Places:United States* Sandy Hook , a village in the town of Newtown, Connecticut* Sandy Hook, Kentucky, a city in Elliott County...

 in the distance. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

The City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation is the department of government of the City of New York responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecological diversity of the city's natural areas, and furnishing recreational opportunities for city's...

 is in the process of restoring the farmhouse back to the way Olmsted had it when he resided there.
Olmsted had greatly improved the structure by adding a -story addition to the top of the house, with small windows on the top floor under the roof attic eaves. He also added porches on all three sides of the farmhouse, which have since been demolished. Olmsted used the property as a tree nursery and planted many unusual specimens of trees on his farm. In the photo you see one of the tremendous Cedar of Lebanon conifers. There are some Osage Orange trees not far from the property as well. The farm originally encompassed land across the main thoroughfare of Hylan Boulevard

Hylan Boulevard

Hylan Boulevard is a major northeast-southwest boulevard in the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is approximately long , and runs from the North Shore neighborhood of Rosebank to the South Shore neighborhood of Tottenville....

, between that road and the beach. After Olmsted sold the farm, it was from then on referred to as the Woods of Arden. The address is 4515 Hylan Boulevard, near Woods of Arden Road.

Sources

• Poillon-Akerly-Olmsted House - Neighborhood Preservation Center, New York, New York