On Saturday, October 3, the jack-o'-lanterns were already glowing as dusk came down over Castleton Avenue. Soul Finger and DJ Cakebone handled the music, and stilt walkers moved through the crowd between Davis and Bement avenues. SILive reported that about 1,200 people came to the Castleton Avenue Harvest Festival that night. Organizers said some of the biggest stars were roughly 18 student volunteers from McKee and Curtis high schools.
The timing tells you something about how the rest of the season will run. A few minutes north, Snug Harbor's grounds were heading into their shorter winter hours. Between now and Thanksgiving, two schedules shape West Brighton's calendar: the sunset at Snug Harbor's gates and a city construction crew's weekday shift. Both push activity onto weekends and into the evening, and the evening part ends up on Castleton Avenue.
Snug Harbor leaves one gate open after dark
Snug Harbor's outdoor grounds and gardens are free and open seven days a week, dawn to dusk, with no ticket needed. The hours page says that after dark every campus gate is locked except the West Gate at Snug Harbor Road. From October through March, it says to expect shorter hours and earlier gate closures as the days get shorter.
That one open gate is how you get in for the season's main nighttime program. The Spooky Snug Harbor Tour runs Friday and Saturday nights in two sessions, 7:30 to 9 p.m. and 9 to 10:30 p.m. Michael Pelczar, founder of Spooky Staten Island, leads it, and the group meets at the Visitor Info Booth at Chapel Road and Gazebo Road. Admission is $30, or $25 for members with the promo code. Guests also get to try ghost-hunting equipment.
Tours remain on October 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 and 30. The Halloween Special on Saturday, October 31, runs from 9 to 10:30 p.m. It visits the grave of Captain Robert Randall, whose fortune founded Sailors' Snug Harbor, and covers a case that drew national attention.
Weekdays belong to the DDC
The second schedule is easier to miss unless you come through on a Tuesday morning. The NYC Department of Design and Construction is replacing Snug Harbor's outdated campus-wide heating and cooling system. The job includes the steam lines running from Building L to the buildings they serve, plus pumps, chillers, cooling towers and central air-conditioning connections for Buildings B and C.
While the work is going on, Snug Harbor's Chapel Road notice lists three closures:
- The parking lot behind Building L
- The middle of Chapel Road, in front of Building L, from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
- The road from Chapel Road to Building P, behind the Staten Island Children's Museum and Building L, where access may be available only to emergency-response vehicles
The site banner says these partial closures started in August 2026 and will last through mid-2027. The work stops at 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, and the fall daylight ends not long after. Together they leave weekend afternoons as the easiest time on campus, and that's when most of the ticketed fall programs are scheduled.
| Date | Program | Time | Admission |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Oct. 8 and 15 | Heritage Farm Stand | 3–6 p.m. | Free |
| Sat., Oct. 10 and 17 | Heritage Farm Stand | 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | Free |
| Oct. 11 and Oct. 18 | Bulb and Soil Workshop | 1–2:30 p.m.; 11 a.m.–12:30 p.m. | $10 |
| Oct. 16 and 17 | Heritage Farm and Compost Tour | 1–2 p.m. | $5 |
| Oct. 24 | Pepper Party! Seed Saving | 1–4 p.m. | See listing |
| Oct. 24 | Harbor Hounds Halloween Costume Contest & Parade | 2–4 p.m. | See listing |
| Oct. 25, Nov. 14, Nov. 29 | Glass House Tour | 1 p.m. | $10 |
| Nov. 5 and 7 | Fall Foliage Tour | 1–2:30 p.m. | See listing |
| Nov. 8 | Pumpkin Smash | 2–3 p.m. | Free |
The Heritage Farm Stand is the program on the shortest clock. Only four market days are left this season, and the last one is Saturday, October 17. The Fall Foliage Tour starts on Chapel Road and goes through the Pond Garden and the Chinese Scholar's Garden. The Glass House Tour shows where tropical and other tender plants spend the winter.
The Castleton block that picks up at dusk
When the gates start closing earlier, much of the neighborhood's evening moves to a short stretch of Castleton Avenue. Most of the storefronts in the 840 to 872 block are new. Of the seven businesses SILive has profiled there, five opened in 2024 or 2025:
- Griflin's Toy Emporium, 840 Castleton Ave. It's a boutique toy store with indie and educational toys, and it plans to offer classes and private parties. SILive profiled it as newly opened in December 2025.
- La Torretta Pizzeria, 853 Castleton Ave. A pizzeria serving traditional and specialty pies and Italian dishes. It celebrated its grand opening in October 2024.
- Sushi Wen, 856 Castleton Ave. It opened on January 7, 2019, and is one of the two older businesses on the block.
- Farm To Bagel, 857 Castleton Ave. It officially opened in September 2024 and has indoor and outdoor seating. After getting its liquor license in March 2025, it added beer.
- Clay & Kiln, 861 Castleton Ave. A family-friendly pottery and ceramic-painting studio, open since at least October 2019.
- Problem Baker, 870 Castleton Ave. A cookie and coffee shop that also serves matcha. SILive listed it as coming soon in March 2025.
- Oda Cafè, 872 Castleton Ave. according to its own site. A European-style café that SILive reported as just opened in March 2025.
The Harvest Festival was built around these businesses. Kristin Daggan, president of the Castleton Avenue Merchants Association and co-owner of Clay & Kiln, described it as an annual collaboration among the merchants on the strip, the Staten Island Business Outreach Center and the NYC Department of Transportation. Farm To Bagel, Sushi Wen, La Torretta Pizzeria, Problem Baker, ODA Cafe and Tea Shop, and Griflin's Toys all took part, along with House of Misfits Temporary Tattoos.
The same group held a free street festival on July 11 that closed the same stretch from 4 to 8 p.m. Both of the block's big events this year ran into the evening.
Forest Avenue had a busier year of turnover
Castleton's newer tenants are heading into another fall, while the commercial blocks along Forest Avenue have changed more over the same stretch. SILive's 2026 closings roundup lists several changes:
- Planet Wings at 474 Forest Ave. closed in May, and Saucy Wingz had moved in by June.
- Supreme Burger at 646 Forest Ave. closed after about two years, and Gyro City is slated for the space.
- Sumac at 1198B Forest Ave. in Westerleigh closed after 10 years, and a halal grill is planned there.
- Sofia's Guac Bar's space at 1210 Forest Ave. is now Favorite Son.
Favorite Son Pizza & Wine opened September 9 with sourdough pizza and a curated wine list. It's the newest sit-down option on the North Shore this fall.
November fills the pocket parks
After Halloween, the free NYC Parks Urban Park Rangers programs take over the North Shore's smaller green spaces. Several of them fall on the same weekends as the Snug Harbor programs above, so a single Saturday can cover both.
- Saturday, November 7. The North Shore Parks Super Hike runs from 10 a.m. to noon. It starts at Snug Harbor and continues through Allison Pond, Goodhue and Jones Woods Park. Snug Harbor's Fall Foliage Tour starts at 1 p.m. the same afternoon.
- Sunday, November 8. Lenape Folktales at Snug Harbor runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the free Pumpkin Smash at the Heritage Farm follows at 2 p.m.
- Saturday, November 14. The Spooky Staten Island History Hike at Allison Pond Park runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., meeting at Prospect Avenue and Brentwood Avenue. Snug Harbor's Glass House Tour starts at 1 p.m.
- Sunday, November 15. The Audre Lorde Legacy Walk at Silver Lake Park runs from 11 to 11:30 a.m., meeting at Forest Avenue and Silver Lake Park Road.
Every one of these November programs ends by early afternoon on a weekend. They miss both the DDC's weekday work window on Chapel Road and Snug Harbor's earlier fall gate closures.
The DE Advisory Team follows how city projects like the Chapel Road work affect daily life on the blocks around them, and we take that into account when we value a home. If you own near Snug Harbor or Castleton Avenue and want to know how your block is valued, Request a Home Valuation.
