He chose the Grymes Hill location for his family estate because it overlooked New York Harbor where he operated a steamship company.
The main house of the estate, a 30-room Georgian mansion, was completed in 1915 and became home to son Herbert Gans and his family.
During the late 1960s, when it became difficult for small colleges to survive, Terence Cooke, then Cardinal Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New York, asked the Vincentian Fathers of St. John's University, to integrate Notre Dame College, in order that Catholic higher education remain a vibrant presence in the Staten Island community and its environs.
On January 27, 1971, the New York State Board of Regents approved the consolidation and the Staten Island Campus of St. John's University became a reality.
Classes began in the fall of 1971, combining the original Notre Dame College with the Brooklyn campus of St. John's, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, business and education.