STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The last sliver of a Staten Island summertime jewel is in its final stages, but decades of neglect and controversy preceded its demolition.
Annadale’s Spanish Camp is a 17-acre property that famed journalist and social activist Dorothy Day once called home. It dates to the late 1920s when residents formed the Spanish Naturopath Society— a group that dissolved in 2000, according to state business records.
Members of the society were largely of Spanish heritage or that of the European nation’s diaspora, and founded the Spanish Camp as a summertime community. “Naturopath” refers to members’ desire to be communicative with nature, and residents originally followed a set of strict rules abstaining from meat, tobacco, alcohol, medicine and even coffee…