to its current state. As modern refrigeration replaced ice harvesting, in 1913 the lake was drained and converted to a working reservoir by the Board of Water Supply. The Board was created by the state legislature in 1905 to build the Catskill water supply system. Silver Lake Reservoir in its current form was created in 1917 when water was piped in to fill it from the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County, New York, 119 miles (192 km) away. The water started arriving on October 25, and the reservoir would become the largest body of fresh water on Staten Island. The park's underbrush began to be removed in 1921 and the natural oaks (Quercus), tulip trees (Liriodendron tulipifera) and sassafras (Sassafras albidum) were supplemented with shrubs, spruce (Picea) and pine (Pinus) trees, and flowerbeds. A January 1921 letter to the editor in the Staten Island Advance lamented the loss: “Nature [should be] encouraged rather than operated on [by Staten Island parks officials] who are so anxious to improve upon nature.” Although the park's scenery is dominated by the reservoir, other parts of the park are notable. Land from Marine Cemetery, a nineteenth-century burial site for the Marine Hospital Quarantine in Tompkinsville, was added to the park in 1924. In 1928 the land was converted to a golf course, and in 1994 researchers discovered documentation linking the site to its past use as a cemetery. Today it is thought that perhaps several thousand immigrants, including many Irish escaping the Great Famine of Ireland, who died from contagious diseases after landing in the United States are buried under the 18th fairway of the golf course. The golf course itself was completed in 1929 and tennis, biking, softball, and playground facilities were added as Silver Lake Park became a recreational hub for the developing borough. “You can visit Silver Lake Park in your Sunday suit and come away untarnished,” a 1954 Staten Island Advance piece on the borough's parks claimed. The reservoir was used for potable water until 1971 when an underground storage tank system was completed, the largest of its kind in the world. Today the reservoir is used as part of the drainage system for the tanks. In 1988, Staten Island Borough President Ralph J. Lamberti provided $1.4 million for a new administration building and children's play area. Again in 1997, Borough President Molinari allocated $700,000 to repave walkways and to add