Bulls Head is a neighborhood in west-central
Staten Island
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
, one of the five
boroughs of
New York City. It is bordered by
New Springville to the south,
Bloomfield to the west,
Willowbrook to the east,
Graniteville to the north, and
Westerleigh
Westerleigh is a clustered village and civil parish (which includes Henfield) in South Gloucestershire, England, it contains sources of the Frome and has an endpoint of the Frome Valley Walkway. It is north of the M4, south of Yate and nort ...
to the north.
The community received its name from an 18th-century
tavern located at the intersection of
Victory Boulevard and
Richmond Avenue (the neighborhood's central point), from which a sign bearing a bull's head was displayed. The Bulls Head area was also known as Phoenixville. During the
American Revolution, this tavern became the local headquarters of the faction loyal to the British crown, or
Tories, as they were colloquially known. As recently as the early 1960s, Bulls Head and the surrounding neighborhoods, such as
Willowbrook to the east and
Graniteville to the north, were dominated by farmland. Dramatic change came soon after the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964, opening up the area to residential development. Soon many
Jewish families, mostly from the boroughs of
Brooklyn and
Queens, settled in Bulls Head and other west mid-island neighborhoods. A smaller number of
Asian immigrants live in Bulls Head. Many of the residents are Italian Catholics served by Our Lady of Pity R.C. Church.
Bulls Head's schools are the elementary school P.S. 60 and the intermediate school I.S. 72. Most of the residents are zoned for
Port Richmond High School. The Todt Hill Library is nearby, at 2550 Victory Boulevard.
Bulls Head is served by the local buses and the
SIM4,
SIM4C,
SIM8,
SIM8X,
SIM32 and
SIM33 express buses.
As of the 2010 census, the demographics of Bulls Head were roughly 71.2% White, 2.3% Black, 15% Hispanic, 9.8% Asian, and 1.7% Other.
This is defining Bulls Head as everything within the boundaries of Census Tracts 291.03, and 291.04, as well as the blocks north of Willowbrook Park in Tract 273.01.
Notable people
People who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Bulls Head include:
*
Jennifer Esposito (born 1976), actress
*
Matthew Festa (born 1993), MLB pitcher for the
Seattle Mariners
References
{{coord, 40, 36, 26, N, 74, 09, 45, W, type:city_region:US-NY, display=title
Neighborhoods in Staten Island