S T A T E N   I S L A N D   M O N A S T E R Y

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of mystery --Mary B. Yates

St. Augustine's, Staten Island, New York

explored & photographed by: Shady

We wandered around upstairs for what seemed like forever, losing sense of time. We could see the other wings of the building through the open windows, and the vast maze of rooms was disorienting- somehow we never seemed to be facing the direction we assumed we would when we found another window to the outside world. Distant sounds reverberated through the walls and floors of the place, causing us to spin around at times only to confront nothing but stillness, silence. We began to get unnerved, and wondered how we were even going to find our way back out.

After a few false starts that lead us to several dead-ends and impassable passageways, we finally found a way back down to the lower level. We did find a set of stairs leading down to the lower levels, but the inky-blackness, coupled with the treacherous holes in the floor (and the fact that some of the sub-levels are flooded) dissuaded us from testing our blind luck by descending. We were feeling tense and decided it was time to exit the Monastery before the old mad monk himself came looking for us. We found the exit and climbed back out into the chillsome outdoors, glancing up at the immense brick walls and the empty, staring windows above and around us as we went out.

Once outside we were a bit surprised to discover that we had spent several hours wandering around inside St. Augustine's. Where had the time gone? Although we were out of the building and back into the open air, we still felt a sense of oppressiveness cloaked around us and a very strong sense that we were not alone.

We made one more turn around the property, stumbling onto the near-hidden old basketball courts. We entered the chain link enclosure that surrounded them almost like a cage, and found even more cult-like symbols scrawled on the scarred concrete blacktop. Rusty chains hung from the poles supporting the backboards, clinking slightly in the breeze. We left the courts and ascended back up the hill, where we found a graffiti-covered old building out back. The roof and doors were long gone, and the interior was overgrown with dead foliage and dry leaves which crackled loudly under our feet.

As we left the small structure out back and made our way back toward the Monastery, we suddenly heard something large lurching through the thick, tangled brush that surrounded the entire place. We froze and listened hard, trying to make out what it was that we had heard. And then... there it was again- a crashing, lumbering sound of twigs snapping and branches breaking... getting closer to our position by the second. We called out a tentative, "hello?" but were answered by silence. We considered that it might be some sort of animal, but it sure was approaching fast and fearlessly for an animal. That left a few options- security guards, Satanists, or perhaps a few drunken college kids. We decided it was not too wise to stick around to find out whatever the case, so we located the scraggly dirt path that lead away from the Monastery grounds and back to where we parked our car. As we moved down the trail, the unknown entity trailing us through the woods changed direction to follow right behind us, getting nearer with each step.

Just as I thought my heart would come rattling out of my chest, we rounded a corner and the car came into sight just mere feet away. The foliage-crunching pursuit behind us stopped instantly, and we didn't hesitate to see why. We reached our car and hopped in, the slamming of our doors echoing in the funereal silence. We paused for a moment to catch our breath and look back into the woods, where the Monastery lay un-seeable, cloaked in the shadowy branches of the enclosing woods, patiently waiting for it's next visitors. After exchanging a silent look that mostly said WHEW, we cranked the engine to life with a small measure of relief and descended the hill, leaving the ancient and abandoned Monastery and all it's mysteries to it's wooded shroud.

Fellow explorer Jimi had this sad news to share with us... "I have visited and filmed St. Augustine's many times and can testify to the creepiness of the grounds. Unfortunately it was demolished by Wagner College (who owns the grounds). The college decided to throw away history in favor of building a new track for its track team. It raised the student tuition for the project too!"

Our visitor Justin shares his story with us: "I spent quite a bit of time exploring teh various abandoned places Staten island has to offer The monestary being one of them. Unfortunately I have to kill some of the myth. I was down in the deepest and darkest corner of the basement. Which included a trek down a 60 foot tunnel that was crawling room only. Spooky as it was. There were only boilers and storage down there. No classrooms or cell\'s with claw marks and blood. If there were a way to go and deeper I would have found it. My friends and I were very thorough and if not brave then stupid. It was always flooded down there thats when we did most of our exploring but anyway I digress. Sorry if I ruined it for some of ya. That place is still creepy as hell. Having found sacrificed animals in the belltower was enough for me to know the place is evil. I wish I had some pictures to submit. Anyway thanks for reading."

And our visitor Christina wrote "...I was in the St. Augustine's Monastery. I see you went in there on a nice day in the daytime. I went in there with a bunch of friends one night in the middle of Febuary in 2 feet of snow. They go in there all the time just to search around and hear noises and they videotape everything they do in there. They said to be very quiet because kids have keg parties in there. One of my friend's Mom came with us in there. She was really cool about it because she acts just like us, so she wanted to join the fun. My friend Cathy got really sick because she had McDonalds and she thought she was goin to throw up so I stayed with her (because I felt bad and she was really scared) in the first room with my other 2 friends Aaron and Mike. Everybody else wanted to go downstairs in the basement because they'd never seen that room. They'd seen every part of that monastery. In the basement you had to walk on ice and when you step on it it cracks and you have to be careful because you might fall in. The water in there goes up to your chest. in the summertime they bring a raft after the ice melts in there to look around. They told me there was 2 stories behind the monastery. The first one is that it used to be a Catholic School for kids and there was a fire and there were classes in the basement and the fire burned down the stairs and it collapsed trapping 82 children in the basement. And the second story was the crazy monk story. You can hear noises in there, even though I was in the first room you can still hear them. We left and we were sitting in the car trying to get warm because it was was freezing and my feet had frost bite so bad I couldn't even walk. I plan to go in there again, but this time really go in. Your website and picture are awesome by the way. Thanks for giving up time to read this."

Do you have any pix, background information or stories to share about this spooky abandoned site?

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