Westerleigh attracted notice when a temperance group, the National Prohibition Campground Association, bought 25 acres (10 ha) of land there in 1877, and named the property Prohibition Park - noted chiefly today for the fact that the official climate records for Staten Island are compiled at the site.
Some of Westerleigh's earliest residents excelled in letters, including Isaac K. Funk, co-founder of Funk and Wagnalls, and poet Edwin Markham.