Advocates want a new future for historic buildings that once put Staten Island on the map

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — In St. George, just feet from the busy ramp that buses and cars take to drop passengers at the Staten Island Ferry, is a so-narrow-you-can-easily-miss-it turnoff, leading to a short street paved with stone.

Those who make the turn onto the block, which bends back to run parallel between Bay Street and the water, soon end at a plaza surrounded by Staten Island history: five buildings dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the site was the nationally-significant U.S. Lighthouse Service Depot.

One structure is now fully redeveloped as a small but vibrant museum, but others sit unused in a state of disrepair.

With the advancing North Shore plan guiding the city’s vision for the area, historical advocates are eager for the site to get a planned refurbish