Blood Root Valley

What was here before?
Natural features like kettle holes, steep hills, and large boulders are evidence that the area was covered by ice 12,000 years ago, during the most recent Ice Age. The variety of soils deposited during the glacier’s passage now allow a diversity of plant and animal species to inhabit the region, and a variety of migratory birds to use the park as a resting place.

This was the site of the Seaview Hospital/ NYC Farm Colony Complex. The Farm Colony was established in 1829 as the “Richmond County Poor Farm” where people farmed and labored for room and board. Seaview Hospital, built in 1913, merged with the Farm colony complex in 1915 and operated as a tuberculosis sanatorium until 1975. It was here that the cure for the disease was developed by Dr. Edward Robitzek (1912-1984). The facility later reopened as NYC Health and Hospitals/SeaView in the early 2000s.

How did this site become a park?
The City assigned this property to NYC Parks in 1994. Blood Root Valley Park is part of the Greenbelt, the largest subsystem of parks in New York City. The Greenbelt was established in 1984 and covers nearly 3,000 acres in central Staten Island. Other parks in the system include High Rock Environmental Center and Greenbelt Headquarters, Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the William T. Davis Wildlife Refuge, LaTourette Park, and Willowbrook Park.

The Greenbelt Conservancy is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that works in partnership with the NYC Parks to oversee the operation, administration, and public use of the parkland of the Greenbelt, the largest of New York City’s five flagship parks.

Blood Root Valley Park is covered with natural vegetation comprised of mature forests, shrub thickets, open woodlands, old fields, meadows, and grasslands, in addition to several species of rare wildflowers, including the blue cohosh, Virginia waterleaf, and sweet cicely. The area also supports hundreds of animal species several endangered or threatened bird species including the peregrine falcon and red-shouldered hawk. It is one of only three sites in New York State inhabited by the arogos skipper, a small butterfly listed by the New York State Natural Heritage Program as a rare element worthy of protection.

What is this park named for?
The site is named for the bloodroot plants that thrive throughout the property. It also contains the only wild population of this plant in all of Staten Island. A member of the poppy family, the bloodroot is an early spring flower whose name refers to the deep red color of its sap. For about a week between March and May, it produces a delicate white flower blossom that often lasts only a day or two before a strong wind or a heavy spring shower destroys them. Other names for the plant include snakebite, sweet slumber, corn root, turmeric, and tetterwort.

Over the centuries, bloodroot has proven to be an incredibly useful plant. Native Americans used its abundant juice as a potent dye to decorate their skin, baskets, tools, and clothing. European colonists were quick to follow suit, using the plant to dye wool.

Bloodroot was also used in medicine, and various Native American tribes used the plant to treat fevers and rheumatism. In the 19th century, London physicians who learned of this practice began using bloodroot, in conjunction with other chemicals, to treat skin cancers but that treatment was discontinued by the end of the 19th century.