To rent a one-bedroom apartment in a St. George house would cost about $1,400 a month, according to Desirée Darden, a broker with the Siderow Residential Group. She said a similar unit in a newer high-rise would be closer to $1,800.

What to Do

If there is a downtown hub now, it is Hyatt Street, where restaurants fill with workers from the nearby courts on weekdays but also do brisk business at nights, like Enoteca Maria, an Italian place. Up the block is the St. George Theater, mostly closed for 30 years but reopened in 2004 after a $1 million renovation; its ornate lobby features gold filigree.

A lighthouse museum by the Bay Street complex is supposed to open this fall, after more than a decade of planning.

And tapping the craft-beer trend, the Flagship Brewing Company opened this spring in neighboring Tompkinsville. The Schools

A public grade-school option is Public School 16 on Monroe Avenue, which offers prekindergarten to fifth grade for about 750 students. It got a C on its last city report card. For middle school, students can attend William A. Morris, on nearby Castleton Avenue in Brighton Heights, where about 1,200 students are enrolled. It got a B grade last year. Curtis High School, on Hamilton Avenue, enrolls about 2,300 students. It also got a B. Last year, SAT averages there were 457 on the reading section, 453 math and 444 writing, versus 437, 463 and 433 citywide.

The Commute

Ferries depart from St. George about every 15 minutes during the morning rush, and arrive at the Whitehall Terminal in Manhattan 25 minutes later. Rides are free. And the terminal is not usually more than a 10-minute walk away, though another option is hopping a Staten Island Railway train at the Tompkinsville station. The ride to the terminal takes three minutes, and the fare is a MetroCard swipe. Several buses also ply Bay Street to the terminal.

The History

In the 1800s, sea captains and merchants occupied grand homes along Richmond Terrace for miles along Staten Island’s northern shore. Survivors here include the temple-like 1835 Greek Revival, at No. 404. For years, it housed a banquet hall, Pavilion on the Terrace, though that closed in 2005. But this month, plans were approved for a similar facility there.