Graniteville is the name of a neighborhood in

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

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

s 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 ...

History

Graniteville was originally named Bennett's Corners and Fayetteville. Quarries for

trap rock Trap rock, also known as either trapp or trap, is any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock. Types of trap rock include basalt, peridotite, diabase, and gabbro.Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A ...

were operated in the area from 1841 to 1896, leading to the community's name being changed first to Granite Village, then Graniteville. According to College of Staten Island professor, geologist Alan Benimoff, this name is a misnomer, as the quarry actually contained no granite. Granite is made of potassium feldspar. The rock at the quarry is composed of sodium feldspar. Also, professor Benimoff discovered Trondhjemite at the site, a rare mineral. Largely rural well into the 20th century, Graniteville was the scene of a notable fire in March 1942, when an explosion at the Consolidated Fireworks Company on Richmond Avenue claimed the lives of five employees. Bisected from east to west by the

Staten Island Expressway Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New York ...

and with

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 ...

forming its eastern boundary, Graniteville's most notable landmark is Baron Hirsch Cemetery, an 80-acre (324,000 m²) Jewish cemetery founded in the late 19th century and still in active use; in August 2001 this cemetery became the focus of a local health-related story when it was one of six locations on the island where

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning " gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "li ...

s carrying the

West Nile virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family '' Flaviviridae'', from the genus '' Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The v ...

were discovered. Residential development in the area burgeoned soon after the

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and t ...

opened in November 1964, and today Graniteville stands at the north end of a busy commercial strip along Richmond Avenue; this strip, which extends to the vicinity of the

Staten Island Mall Staten Island Mall is a shopping mall in New Springville, Staten Island, New York City, opened in 1973. It is the only indoor shopping mall in the borough. It is the largest retail center on the island and is the site of the island's third-largest ...

approximately 4 miles (6 km) away, is the scene of some of the heaviest automotive traffic on Staten Island.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, the demographics of Graniteville were roughly as follows: 37.4% White, 16.6% Black, 29.9% Hispanic, 13.1% Asian, 3% Other. This is defining Graniteville as everything within the boundaries of Census Tracts 303.01 & 303.02.

Education

Public school students in Graniteville are mostly zoned for P.S.60 and P.S.22, and I.S.51 (Markham Intermediate School) or I.S.72 (

Rocco Laurie Intermediate School The Rocco Laurie Intermediate School refers to New York City Intermediate School 72 in Staten Island, New York. It is a Title I school. It is located at 33 Ferndale Avenue in Heartland Village, Staten Island. Heartland Village is part of New Spri ...

), as well as

Port Richmond High School Port Richmond High School is a public high school on the North Shore of Staten Island, New York City, New York. It is located in the Elm Park neighborhood, at 85 St Josephs Avenue between Innis Street and Charles Avenue. It has approximately 10 ...

. The John W. Lavelle Preparatory Charter School opened in September 2009 and is the first charter school (a school that is publicly funded, but privately run) on Staten Island. Also, a new school called The Staten Island School of Civic Leadership (P.S./I.S. 861) opened in September. This is Staten Island's first K to 8 school. Residents don't have a library in the community and use the Port Richmond, Todt Hill-Westerleigh, and Mariners Harbor branches of the New York Public Library.

Transportation

Graniteville is served by the S48, S98, SIM30, SIM33, SIM34 and SIM35 on

Forest Avenue Forest Avenue (formerly known as Green Street; colloquially known as Forest Ave) is a major street in Portland, Maine, United States. It runs for around from Bridgton Road in the northwest to Congress Street, in downtown Portland, in the south ...

, the S40, S46, S48, S90, S96, S98, SIM33 and SIM34 on South Avenue, and the S44, S59, S89, S94, SIM3,

SIM4 Sim4 is a nucleotide sequence alignment program akin to BLAST Blast or The Blast may refer to: *Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that ...

, SIM8, and SIM8X on

Richmond Avenue Richmond Avenue is a major north-south thoroughfare on Staten Island, New York. Measuring approximately , the road runs from the South Shore community of Eltingville to the North Shore community of Graniteville. Street description Richmon ...

Police and crime

Graniteville and the West Shore are patrolled by the 121st Precinct of the

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

, located at 970 Richmond Avenue. The 121st Precinct was split from the 120th Precinct in 2013; the latter ranked 12th safest out of 69 patrol areas for per-capita crime in 2010. The 121st Precinct saw 0 murders, 0 rapes, 0 robberies, 6 felony assaults, 1 burglary, 5 grand larcenies, and 2 grand larcenies auto in 2018.

Parks

The neighborhood is next to the Graniteville Swamp.

References

External links

Graniteville, Staten Island
''Forgotten-NY'' Guide to Graniteville {{coord, 40, 37, 30, N, 74, 08, 56, W, display=title Neighborhoods in Staten Island