![Stillwell Av Neptune jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Stillwell_Av_Neptune_jeh.jpg)
Stillwell Avenue is a major two-way north/south thoroughfare in southern
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and the central section of
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
. It is long and begins at a dead end at
Riegelmann Boardwalk
The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk along the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs bet ...
on Coney Island. The road goes north, leaving Coney Island, ending at
Bay Parkway, where the road continues as the Bay Ridge Parkway (former
Route 439). On December 11, 2008 it acquired the subsidiary name Polar Bear Club Walk, named for the
Coney Island Polar Bear Club. The Stillwell Avenue/Surf Avenue intersection on Coney Island is the location of the
Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue subway station, a major subway station in New York City.
History
Stillwell Avenue was named after settler
Nicholas Stillwell (1603–1671), who had a farm in the area and became the progenitor of an influential Brooklyn family by the same name.
Plans for Stillwell Avenue began in October 1926. The street was to stretch from Bay Parkway (its current northern terminus) and Neptune Avenue on Coney Island ( from the southern terminus). The project was to cost $331,500 and was certified by Brooklyn
borough president James J. Byrne.
Stillwell Avenue, at the intersection with Surf Avenue, is the location of the original
Nathan's.
The
New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...
newspaper released a story in 2006 about plans to reinvigorate Coney Island. Most of it was for amusement parks, as well as a large
waterpark
A water park (or waterpark, water world) is an amusement park that features water play areas such as swimming pools, water slides, splash pads, water playgrounds, and lazy rivers, as well as areas for floating, bathing, swimming, and other baref ...
and a three-story
carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
.
A scaled down version of this plan would later become
Luna Park
Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-sc ...
. In 2016, plans were released for the redevelopment of the
Shore Theater at the intersection with Surf Avenue.
In 2016, the corner of Surf Avenue and Stillwell Avenue was co-named
Nathan & Ida Handwerker Way – to honor Nathan and his wife Ida the co-founders of
Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the Bro ...
.
Street description
![Stillwell Av end Bensonhurst jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Stillwell_Av_end_Bensonhurst_jeh.jpg)
Stillwell Avenue begins at the Atlantic Ocean on
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
, just north of the
Riegelmann Boardwalk
The Riegelmann Boardwalk (also known as the Coney Island Boardwalk) is a boardwalk along the southern shore of the Coney Island peninsula in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Opened in 1923, the boardwalk runs bet ...
, occupying the position of West 14th Street.
The road parallels Henderson Walk for a short distance to the intersection with Surf Avenue at 0.2 mile. Surf Avenue stretches parallel to the boardwalk on Coney Island. Neptune Avenue is the next intersection, intersecting at 0.4 mile. Soon afterwards, Stillwell Avenue crosses
Coney Island Creek
Coney Island Creek is a tidal inlet in Brooklyn, New York City. It was created from a series of streams and inlets by land filling and digging activities starting in the mid-18th century which, by the 19th century, became a continual strait an ...
, which reaches into
Lower New York Bay
Lower New York Bay is a section of New York Bay south of the Narrows (the strait between Staten Island and Brooklyn). The eastern end of the Bay is marked by two spits of land, Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and Rockaway, Queens. The waterway b ...
. Just after crossing the creek, Stillwell Avenue goes under the
Shore Parkway
A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...
, a section of the
Belt Parkway
The Belt Parkway is the name given to a series of connected limited-access highways that form a belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The Belt Parkway comprises three of the four parkways in what is known as t ...
system. Although it does not have an interchange with the road, Exit 6N on the westbound Shore Parkway is for Stillwell Avenue. Instead, the exit lets off at Avenue Z and accesses Stillwell within a mile. Bay 50th Street intersects just afterwards . Stillwell Avenue then passes
Scarangella Park and intersects 86th Street at . At , there is an intersection with
Kings Highway, which ends soon afterwards at
Bay Parkway. Stillwell Avenue also comes to an end at Bay Parkway, from its start. The road virtually continues as Bay Ridge Parkway, a street that was formerly part of
Route 439.
Major intersections
Transportation
![Coney Island Stillwell Station by David Shankbone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Coney_Island_Stillwell_Station_by_David_Shankbone.JPG)
At the Surf Avenue intersection on Coney Island, the largest elevated
rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...
terminal
Terminal may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Terminal (electronics), a device for joining electrical circuits together
* Terminal (telecommunication), a device communicating over a line
* Computer terminal, a set of primary input and output dev ...
in existence,
which shares a name with the avenue, is located on Stillwell Avenue. The station is also the most energy-efficient transit facility in the world. The station, originally opened in 1919, rebuilt and re-opened in 2004 provides access to the .
The other station located along Stillwell Avenue is the
Bay 50th Street station in southern Brooklyn. Located in front of the John Dewey High School, the station services only the .
The
New York City Bus
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...
-operated bus lines serve the avenue.
[http://web.mta.info/nyct/bus/schedule/bkln/b064cur.pdf ]
See also
*
Streets in Brooklyn
Streets is the plural of street, a type of road.
Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music
* Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh
* ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk b ...
*
Transportation to Coney Island
References
{{Brooklyn Streets
Streets in Brooklyn
1926 establishments in New York City