8. Conference House
Overlooking the Arthur Kill River and Raritan Bay, the Conference House is located on the southernmost tip of Staten Island. The house was originally part of a 1,630-acre property owned by British naval captain Christopher Billopp, who according to legend won Staten Island for the state of New York by winning a bet that he could sail around the island in a day. The Conference House is named after the 1776 Staten Island Peace Conference in which John Adams, Edward Rutledge and Benjamin Franklin met with British Admiral Lord Richard Howe to discuss the possibility of ending the war. No agreement was made after the Patriots refused.
Other Revolutionary War sites on Staten Island include Historic Richmond Town, where British troops were stationed during the war. Historic Richmond Town consists of over 30 buildings and sites dating between the late 17th and early 20th centuries, and some of the structures used during the Revolutionary War still stand. There was also a Battle of Staten Island in 1777 that was a failed Continental Army raid against British forces, suffering from a shortage of boats under the command of John Sullivan.