New York’s turn-of-the-century skyline was built with brick and terra cotta — and the companies that made it were partly Staten Island’s. A free ongoing exhibit at Conference House Park, organized with the Tottenville Historical Society, shows off terracotta artifacts and masonry bricks from that era, including work tied to the famed Atlantic Terra Cotta Company.
- What: Ongoing museum exhibit on New York’s brick and terra cotta industries — artifacts and masonry bricks chronicling turn-of-the-20th-century architecture
- Where: H.H. Biddle House in Conference House Park, 70 Satterlee Street, Staten Island (accessible)
- When: Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., repeating weekly through Dec 31, 2026
- Cost: Free — no tickets or registration
- Why it’s interesting: the same materials and companies shaped buildings across the U.S., not just New York
Most visitors come to Conference House Park for the 1680 stone house where the Continental Congress’s 1776 peace meeting with the British failed. The brick and terra cotta exhibit is the quieter, lesser-known reason to stay: a free, unhurried look at the building blocks of New York’s architecture, right down at the city’s southern tip.