World War I

The first draft board on Staten Island was opened in 1917.  More than 5,000 men and women from Staten Island joined the armed services; 160 Islanders were killed in action.  

The names of 369 veterans are memorialized on the Victory Monument located  in Pleasant Plains.  It was “Erected by Citizens of the Fifth Ward in honor of the soldiers and sailors who served their country in the World War of 1914-1918.”

Pleasant Plains Plaza

The original Almer G. Russell Recreation Pavilion, located at the end of Hylan Blvd in Tottenville, was formally opened in 1935 to honor Russell, a Tottenville soldier killed in action in France in 1918.   After falling into ruins from years of neglect, the Russell Pavilion was razed in the 1960s.  Finally rebuilt in 2002, the structure was rededicated to the memory of Russell in 2008, thanks to the efforts of Gordon Ekstrand and the Beauvais-Hudson American Legion Post No. 126.

The Pavilion

Four Tottenville men lost their lives during the Great War:

Walton U. Beauvais / Thomas Cavallo / Peter L. Massey / Almer G. Russell

Two were from Richmond Valley:  Clarence R. Klinger  /  John A. O'Mara

Flag Day Parade, 1964 (Gift of Muriel Burgess)