40°33′37″N74°07′12″W / 40.56028°N 74.12000°W /40.56028; -74.12000
Oakwood is a neighborhood located in east centralStaten Island,New York City, near theSouth Shore. It is bordered by Tysens Lane (north); the Atlantic Ocean (east);Great Kills Park (south); Kensico Street, and Clarke Avenue (west).[1]
The neighborhood has a coastline on theLower New York Bay; the coastal area is sometimes referred to asOakwood Beach, and is the site of asewage treatment facility. Bordering this facility on the south is the Staten Island Unit of theGateway National Recreation Area, also known locally (and formerly, officially) asGreat Kills Park.
Oakwood'sZIP Code is 10306, served by a post office inNew Dorp, the community's northern neighbor.
Dominated by farmland in the heights area, and an ocean resort in the beach area until the mid-20th century, Oakwood started suburbanization when aStaten Island Tunnel was proposed to connect to theNew York City Subway. Development was rapid after theVerrazzano-Narrows Bridge opened in November 1964. Today, Oakwood is a middle-class neighborhood of one- and two-family homes and garden apartments, with important commercial establishments alongHylan Boulevard.[1]
Oakwood Beach underwent massive damage duringHurricane Sandy in late October 2012. A year later, due to the damage and low elevation, neighborhood homeowners were given theoption of government buyouts, which would leave the area as a vacantbuffer zone for future storms.[2][3][4]
Points of interest located in Oakwood includeMonsignor Farrell High School and a string ofcemeteries on the neighborhood's southwest side, most notablyFrederick Douglass Memorial Park, anAfrican-American burial ground – an anomaly as very few African-Americans actually reside in Oakwood or any of the neighborhoods that surround it.Historic Richmond Town lies immediately to the west.
The greenbelt woods located along Riedel Avenue have some concrete artifacts (such as a piece of sidewalk located near the pond at Riedel and Thomas Street), and pieces of the Great Depression can be occasionally found along the trails, such as bricks or chimneys or foundations of houses that were once located in the area, when it was still rural. The trails along Riedel Avenue, once planned for theWillowbrook Parkway, also contain large boulders dropped off from glacial retreat during the ice age (though many are painted red due to vandals).
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Amundsen Circle (officiallyCaptain Roald Amundsen Plaza) is a traffic circle and 1.05-acre (4,200 m2) park bounded by Amboy Road, Clarke Avenue and Savoy Street. Amundsen Circle and the 4.5-mile (7.2 km) Amundsen Trail forjoggers both commemorate explorerRoald Amundsen. The park was acquired by the city in 1928, and named on July 9, 1929. In the park, there is a stone plaque, erected in 1933, when there was a large Norwegian population in Oakwood, by the Norsemen Glee Club of Staten Island and the Norwegian Singing Society of Brooklyn. The park is maintained by the Richmond Ever-Green Garden Club.[5][6]
TheStaten Island Railway serves the neighborhood atits eponymous station. Oakwood Heights' bus service is provided by theS57,S76,S78,S79 SBS andS86 local buses and theSIM1,SIM5,SIM6,SIM7,SIM9,SIM10 andSIM22 express buses.[7]
