Garibaldi-Meucci Museum
420 Tompkins Avenue | Park Hill | built 1845
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1851
Giuseppe Garibaldi moves into the Rosebank cottage with the inventor Antonio Meucci
The Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi arrived at the Quarantine Station on Staten Island in 1850, poor and alone, and spent his first months at the Pavilion Hotel in St. George. Working with Antonio Meucci in a Clifton candle business, he moved with Meucci into this small Gothic Revival house, lent by the composer and impresario Max Maretzek, who was leaving for Havana. Garibaldi lived here about eighteen months, departing the island in 1853.
“…the small frame Gothic Revival house Garibaldi was to occupy as his residence for a total of eighteen months, from 1851 to 1853…”
- 1882
Frank Leslie's weekly prints a picture of the cottage with its original Gothic trim
An illustration in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly showed the house with a chimney at each end, a shingled roof and a pointed-arch window in a central cross gable. Its gables were edged with Gothic Revival vergeboards carved in a fleur-de-lis pattern, and the first floor was enclosed as a sun porch of glass panes and wooden lattice. By the 1967 landmark designation, many of those details were gone, though the main lines survived.
“An illustration of the residence appeared on June 3, 1882 in Frank Leslie's…”
- 1882
Brewer Bachman gives the house to Rosebank's Italian colony, on condition that Meucci may stay
Bachman, owner of Bachman's Brewery and of this cottage, formally presented the house and its grounds to the Italian colony of Rosebank so it could be honored as Garibaldi's home; Garibaldi died the same year. The gift came with a condition: Antonio Meucci, whom the landmark report credits with developing the telephone before Bell perfected his, could keep living there with his wife.
“Bachman made formal presentation of the house and grounds to the Italian colony of Rosebank, to commemorate it as the residence of Garibaldi…”
- 1884
Antonio Meucci attends the placing of a plaque honoring Garibaldi's stay in the house
A plaque commemorating Giuseppe Garibaldi's years in the cottage was put up on the building, and Antonio Meucci, the inventor and candle maker who made his home here, was at the ceremony. Meucci died in 1889. Garibaldi had shared the house with him from 1851 to 1853.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1891
A newspaper announces the auction of the Garibaldi Homestead and its furniture
Despite the gift to the Italian community, the Staten Islander printed a notice that the house would go to public auction along with its contents, among them a wardrobe, bedsteads, tables, four rustic chairs and an organ built of Russian wood. Many of those pieces had belonged to Garibaldi himself. After the sale the cottage was neglected and fell into disrepair.
“Many of these articles were the belongings of General Garibaldi.”
- 1907
The cottage is moved and enclosed in a colonnaded memorial for Garibaldi's 100th birthday
The house was shifted from its first location nearby and set inside an open-air memorial pavilion lined with columns, dedicated to mark the centennial of Garibaldi's birth. The pavilion was later taken down. Since then the site has hosted a number of celebrations on Garibaldi's birthday, which happens to fall on the Fourth of July.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1925
Antifascists clash over the Italian ambassador's role in the Garibaldi anniversary events
From 1925 to 1932 the yearly Garibaldi anniversary gatherings at the memorial turned into clashes. Antifascist followers of Carlo Tresca protested the participation of Italy's ambassador, Giacomo De Martino.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1956
The Sons of Italy rededicate the house as the Garibaldi Memorial, with rooms for both men
Under the care of the Order of the Sons of Italy in America, the cottage was rededicated as the Garibaldi Memorial. Of its five rooms, three are on the first floor, one of them a Garibaldi Memorial Hall. Upstairs, one room honors Antonio Meucci's early work on the telephone, and the other is Garibaldi's bedroom, restored to how it was believed to look when he lived here.
- 2009
The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum is rededicated after a major restoration
Following a major restoration, the museum held a rededication ceremony attended by Representative Michael McMahon, museum president John Dabbene and Salvatore Lanzilotta, who headed the Sons of Italy's New York State order. Opened as a museum in 1956, the house belongs to the National Order Sons of Italy Foundation and celebrates Italian-American heritage.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Garibaldi-Meucci MuseumWikipedia
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