Elm Park is the name of a small park in the Port Richmond section of

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 New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States. The park is located across Innis Street from Port Richmond High School. The name "Elm Park" is sometimes used to denote the area from its namesake westward for several blocks, lending its name to the former Elm Park Station on the North Shore Branch of the

Staten Island Railway The Staten Island Railway (SIR) is a rapid transit line in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Staten Island. It is owned by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA), a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Trans ...

. The station was situated directly beneath Morningstar Road. Passenger service on this branch of the railway was halted in 1953; a dilapidated remnant of the station's platform still exists, but the stairways leading to the street have been removed. At various times, the neighborhood was known as Jacksonville (c. 1830) and Lowville (c. 1850). Its present name was given to it by a local physician, Dr. John T. Harrison, and refers to the

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...

trees that could be found on the doctor's estate. The last exit on

New York State Route 440 New York State Route 440 (NY 440) is a state highway located entirely on Staten Island in New York City. The route acts as a connector between the two segments of New Jersey Route 440, running from the Staten Island community of R ...

before the Bayonne Bridge is in Elm Park, which also contains one of two Catholic cemeteries on Staten Island named St. Mary's Cemetery; the other cemetery, located in Grasmere, is much larger than the Elm Park cemetery. This often causes confusion. In 2008 Senator

Charles Schumer Charles Ellis Schumer ( ; born November 23, 1950) is an American politician serving as Senate Majority Leader since January 20, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Schumer is in his fourth Senate term, having held his seat since 1999, and ...

and other Staten Island representatives proposed a Park and Ride under the bridge, for users of bus service to

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula located between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. As of ...

. Residents have been opposed to this move, yet local businesses, according to the

Staten Island Advance The ''Staten Island Advance'' is a daily newspaper published in the borough of Staten Island in New York City. The only daily newspaper published in the borough, and the only major daily paper focused on a borough, it covers news of local and ...

, support it.

Demographics

In the early 20th Century a large number of

Polish-American Polish Americans ( pl, Polonia amerykańska) are Americans who either have total or partial Poles, Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 9.15 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing abou ...

families settled in Elm Park, and they still constitute a percentage of its population; many of these families are parishioners of St. Adalbert's Church, a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church located in the community, which later received some

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

and

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

arrivals, particularly in the westernmost blocks bordering

Mariners Harbor Mariners Harbor is a neighborhood located in the northwestern part of New York City's borough of Staten Island. It is bordered by Lake Avenue to the east, Forest Avenue to the south, Richmond Terrace to the north, and Holland Avenue to the west. The ...

. As of the 2010 census, the area was 43.2% Hispanic, 24.1% White, 23.1% Black, 7% Asian, and 2.6% Other This is using a definition of Census Tract 239, and Block Group 2 of Tract 223.

Transportation

Elm Park was served by the

's North Shore Branch at Elm Park, until it closed in 1953. Elm Park is served by .

Education

Most public school students in Elm Park are zoned to the following schools: *P.S. 21 *P.S. 22 *I.S. 51 *Port Richmond High School

References

{{coord, 40, 37, 52, N, 74, 08, 19, W, display=title Neighborhoods in Staten Island