Kreischerville, in brick and clay
The Landmarks Preservation Commission's 1994 report on 81-83 Kreischer Street speaks of "the quasi-company town character that Charleston had as Kreischerville during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries" (LPC 1872). Its report on St. Peter's German Evangelical Church describes workers employed "at the brick works, the clay pits, the International Ultramarine Works (between Kreischerville and Rossville), and the S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company at Prince's Bay" (LPC, St. Peter's Church). LPC addresses these buildings to "Charleston," and the Census Bureau's geocoder places them in ZIP 10309, inside the city's official Tottenville-Charleston area.
The designated buildings
- The Kreischer House, 4500 Arthur Kill Road, built about 1885 and designated in February 1968. Its report never uses the word Charleston; the placement rests on its address and its companion reports.
- Four designated Kreischerville Workers' Houses on Kreischer Street, at 71-73, 75-77, 81-83 and 85-87, each built about 1890 and designated on July 26, 1994 (71-73, 75-77, 81-83, 85-87).
- St. Peter's German Evangelical Church at Kreischerville, 19-23 and 25 Winant Place, its church built in 1883.
- Westfield Township District School No. 7, 4210-4212 Arthur Kill Road, built in 1896 and enlarged in 1906–07 (LPC 1876).
Owning one of these means Landmarks Preservation Commission review before exterior work: windows, porches, siding, roofing visible from the street. A frame workers' house of the 1890s typically carries its own set of issues regardless of designation, among them sill and joist rot where the house sits close to grade, undersized original framing that later owners have cut for plumbing, and wiring from several different decades.
What a city review says about sewers
No Department of Environmental Protection press release naming Charleston turned up in the research for this page. The closest sourced record is an environmental review. The Charleston Mixed-Use Development final environmental impact statement, published by the Office of Environmental Coordination in August 2013, describes an existing "sanitary sewer pipe ranging in size between a 12-inch and 18-inch diameter running south along Arthur Kill Road for eventual connection into the Oakwood Beach WPCP for treatment." It places that development site under DEP drainage plans for "the Mill Creek Watershed TD-2 and the Clay Pit Ponds Park Watershed TD-7."
That describes one site at Arthur Kill Road and Veterans Road West in 2013. It shows a sanitary line on Arthur Kill Road; it does not show that nearby houses are connected. The same chapter notes that where sewers were missing, the city was building separate sanitary and storm systems "to replace existing private sanitary systems such as septic systems." The same review placed that Charleston development site within the Clay Pit Ponds Park watershed drainage plan. For a house here, the gap to close is the one between that line in the road and the house's own drain, and only the lot's records or a camera run of the building sewer close it.
Fill and settlement
On a lot whose history includes clay pits or industrial use, ask about fill. Fill placed without compaction can settle unevenly for years, and it shows up as sloped floors, stair-step cracks in block foundations and doors that stop latching. That is general building science, not a claim about any particular street.
The housing mix
The official area's figures from the city's tax-lot file, which Charleston shares with its neighbor, are on the Tottenville page. The Census Bureau's 2020–2024 survey, for ZIP Code Tabulation Area 10309, counts 4,096 one-unit detached houses, 4,588 one-unit attached houses and 3,691 units in two-unit buildings (units-in-structure table). That ZIP area also takes in Prince's Bay to the east, so read the figures as context.
For an attached house, the questions differ from those a detached house raises. Is there a homeowners' association, and what does it maintain? Who owns the roof over the party wall? Does the attic fire separation continue unbroken to the roof deck? Newer frame construction also deserves a look at window flashing, deck ledger attachment and the grading that sends water away from the foundation.
Getting around
No Staten Island Railway station carries Charleston's name in the MTA's station data. The Arthur Kill stop lies in the same official area, but no source assigns it to Charleston.
Maps and rules to check before an offer
The Tottenville-Charleston official area has VE zones along its shoreline on FEMA's flood hazard layer, and it contains or borders AE and floodway areas, Zone A, and the shaded form of Zone X, which FEMA draws for a flood with a 0.2 percent yearly chance and which still counts as flood hazard. The effective map for New York City dates from 2007, and FEMA's Community Status Book lists the city with no Community Rating System class. Pull the specific parcel from the FEMA Flood Map Service Center.
Anyone planning an addition should read the Special South Richmond Development District rules on trees, regrading and designated open space, and DCP's Lower Density Growth Management Area summary, then check the lot in ZoLa. Gas-piping cycles under Local Law 152 skip one- and two-family houses (DOB); Local Law 126's basement program has no Staten Island district currently in its area and is not yet taking applications.