Staten 'Odd-land': Vacant fast-food joint, a boss old car and a racy lighting fixture will catch your eye

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Keep your eyes open when walking or driving around Staten Island, and you're bound to see some unusual sights.

Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Seen in the Advance parking lot. Yeah, I know it's a joke, but still.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Recognize it?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

It's the old Taco Bell near the corner of Victory Boulevard and Bay Street. Been closed for years.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

How many times did you hit up that drive-through?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Nothing left of the old menu sign.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And this sign's seen better days.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

That light pole looks like it's about ready to fall over.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Been a while since any cars parked here.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Again, there's a single shoe amid all the debris. Where's the other one?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Clearly, people have been partying here.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

At least the fence is nice.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Kind of spruces up the site.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

What's all that stuff underneath the trestle near the Stapleton stop of the Staten Island Railway?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Oh, it's hazardous waste. Didn't know they stored hazardous waste in this manner. At least it's behind a very stout fence.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Vacant storefront, Victory Boulevard, Tompkinsville.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Looks in pretty good shape.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

The place where they shot the cover of "Who's Next"? Nope, just an old observation tower at the former military base at Miller Field in New Dorp. Still, very imposing.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This is in my neighborhood in Stapleton. Used to be full of really beautiful sunflowers. You can see what's happened.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And you can see how the owner feels about it.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Casual-style parkin' down at the Urby development in Stapleton. A perfect vibe for a hipster's paradise.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Who is making beautiful art out of these FDNY alarms? This one is on Bay Street in Rosebank. I've seen another on Stuyvesant Place in St. George.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Found this outbuilding on a vacant industrial site on Edgewater Street in Clifton.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

The lock held fine, but the door didn't. Hey, it was already busted open when I found it.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

An office of some kind.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Amazingly, the motion-detecting light on the ceiling was still working, and popped on when I walked in.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

A lot of stuff left behind.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Hmm, some valuable jewels, perhaps? Or at least some chocolates?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

No such luck.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

File folders left in an old metal desk drawer.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Piles  of old receipts from NAPA Auto Parts.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

A bathroom toilet dispenser roll?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

You wonder who was the last person who was in this office before it was vacated.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

More stuff.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

BW Manufacturing is "the leader in concrete floor preparation equipment," according to the company's website.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Industrial-parts catalogue.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Empty.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

There were lots of big storage drums scattered around the site.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Including this drum that contained Chevron Ursa Super Plus, a heavy duty engine oil used with agricultural equipment, buses, construction equipment, forestry equipment and inland marine equipment.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This barrel contained acrylic resurfacer for sport surfaces.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

White liquid pavement marking was stored in this drum.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

The main building on the site was closed up tight.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

But I was able to get some shots of the interior.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Whatever was once contained in here is long gone.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

A big, wide open space. Could be a movie soundstage, no?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

The room gets some nice light.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This door on the back could make a cool cover for a punk or metal album.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

As could this mysterious marking.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

How did that placard get down here?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

It never surprises me what I come across when exploring these vacant sites.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

An old Pathmark supermarket cart.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

With a CD player and other debris inside.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And, of course, a soccer ball.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And a basketball. Along with single shoes, soccer balls and basketballs always seem to turn up in the debris fields at these vacant sites. How did they get there? Who used them? Is somebody still looking for their long-lost ball?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This truck was parked just outside the gate.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

With this heavy-duty apparatus in the truck bed.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Used to create road markings, like yellow and white traffic lines.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Wait a minute. What's that in the window on the  bottom left?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Relax. It's just a lamp. But it can startle you when you're waiting for the light at Richmond Road and Longview Steuben Street.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Just found this blowing down the road in Clifton. Wonder where it came from?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This beautiful vintage car has been parked at the corner of Bay Street and Vanderbilt Avenue for a while now.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Going to need some help from you classic car folks out there to identify it. Definitely a Pontiac, possibly from the early 1950s?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Check out the radio.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And when was the last time you saw a clock set into the door of the glove compartment like that?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

That's some climate-control system.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Saw this registration sticker on the floor. You mean this car was street legal as recently as 1999?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Bit of a mess in the back area. But look at the door interiors.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

No seats, but the dashboard area is pretty cool.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

That steering wheel is mint.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Including the insignia in the center.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Look at how small the windshield wipers are.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And the rear-view mirror.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Maybe a Chieftan? Or a Strealiner?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Leave a message below if you can identify the vehicle.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Peeking through the keyhole at a vacant home under re-construction in Sunnyside.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Guard booth of an old bank building in Stapleton.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

A lot of rust and debris by the front door.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Overgrowth blocks most of the front of the building.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Faded glory in the window.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Looks like that fixture got a little melted.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Here's what it looks like from the street. The building was built in 1955.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Good to know.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

The clock's been stopped for a long time.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Any idea what this odd structure is at the corner of Edgar Terrace and Avon Place?

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Some kind of a gate, perhaps.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This definitely looks like a hinge for a gate or a door.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

If you know, let me know!

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

You never know what you're going to find when you mill the roads for re-paving. Staten Island roads were made of all kinds of surfaces back in the day. Here's some red brick in Mariners Harbor.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

This street used to be covered in yellow brick.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

And here, old-fashion cobblestone. Would be nice to see some of these areas restored to their former glory instead of paved over. But probably not terrible practical given all the traffic.

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Tom Wrobleski | wrobleski@siadvance.com

Cool old coffee-shop sign, corner of Cebra Avenue and Victory Boulevard.

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