Status: Demolished

Just visible above the treeline near Wagner College on Staten Island is an old bell tower. This always seems to peak the curiosity of many who are compelled to travel up the tiny road to the top of Grymes Hill to see just what it is that’s attached to this mysterious bell tower. I know, because I was one of those inquisitive explorers.

For years, I had heard about this majestic old crumbling monastery, once a prestigious school for boys and residence for postulants, but never had the opportunity to seek it out. My Staten Island tour guide directed our party to a location near Wagner College, and when I inquired about the bell tower above the trees, he informed me that THIS was the monastery. I was so excited that I’d finally have a chance to see it!

Through a little bit of research, I learned that this Augustinian Academy opened in 1899 and was later moved to this location on Grymes Hill in 1923 in order to allow an elementary school use of its old buildings. Due to lack of enrollment, its doors closed in 1969. Now, what remains of this once highly respected educational institution lies in ruin and has been subject to vandalism and rumors of Satanism for many years.

The Augustinian Academy was once known for its reputation as a high-class institution of education, but today it seems it’s better known for the legends that surround it. The most well-known legend surrounding the monastery is one of a monk who went mad and systematically dragged his fellow monks one by one to the fabled sublevels below the ground and slaughtered them. It has been said that he remained locked in an underground cell where he clawed away at the walls and howled mournfully until his death.

But are the sublevels such a fable? The Unquiet Tomb’s long lost member 5wytchbhakk told me of his friend who explored about six of them with another friend of his, but had to turn back because the odor was so foul. It has been said that no one has ever made it down to the tenth sublevel, which would be the very end of them. Those that have explored the sublevels have claimed that there are rooms down there very much resembling jail cells, and in one, there are bloody claw marks on the wall. Others claim that the smell is so putrid because there are dead bodies in the sublevels.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know for sure if ANY part of this is true, being that every possible entrance to the monastery is now sealed with cinderblock and cement. Even though no interior exploration is possible, it’s still a gorgeous sight from the outside. Overall, the monastery is in VERY bad condition, having been burned by arsonists a few times, but we hope it will remain standing for some time. Someday I hope to go back to Staten Island and see that old bell tower peeking above the trees again, a calming reminder that it still survives. And if what some people say is true, I’ll keep an ear out for the ringing bell that some claim they hear late at night.

- Ember, 2003