About Bay Terrace, Staten Island

The neighborhood of Bay Terrace is located on the South Shore of Staten Island. It is surrounded by the Raritan Bay below Great Kills Park and by the neighborhoods of Great Kills, Richmondtown, and Oakwood. Also located in the neighborhood is the mid-rise condo building known as the Woodlands at Bay Terrace.

Sometime between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century this neighborhood was known as Whitlock. This is due to the Whitlock Realty Company, which owned and developed much of the land in this area. In the late 1950s, the name of the neighborhood changed from Whitlock to Bay Terrace.  The name of Bay Terrace comes from the fact that this area of Staten Island is flat and slopes down towards the Lower New York Bay.

For some outside activities, there are four parks close by to Bay Terrace. The first park is Greencroft Playground, located in the Bay Terrace neighborhood itself, next to P.S. 53. This park holds a junior baseball field, two basketball courts, a play unit, and spray showers. For your convenience, it also has benches, a drinking fountain, and a bathroom. The other three parks are not actually in the neighborhood, but are nearby. These parks are Siedenburg Park, Seaside Wildlife Nature Park, and Gateway National Recreation Area – Great Kills Park.

For the parents looking for public and private schools for their children to attend in Bay Terrace, there are a bunch of schools to choose from. There are only two public schools that are actually located in this neighborhood, but there are many other schools close by as well.  The two schools located in Bay Terrace are the elementary school P.S. 53, at 330 Durant Avenue, and the middle school I.S. 24, at 225 Cleveland Avenue.

There are three other public elementary schools and two public high schools close by to this neighborhood. The public elementary schools nearby are P.S. 8, at 100 Lindenwood Road; P.S. 32, at 32 Elverton Avenue; and P.S. 50, at 200 Adelaide Avenue. The two public high schools close by are New Dorp High School, at 465 New Dorp Lane, and Staten Island Technical High School, at 485 Clawson Street.

If you would prefer to send your child to a private school, there are many near the neighborhood in which you can send your children. For children in pre-kindergarten to eighth grade there is New Dorp Christian Academy, at 259 Rose Avenue, and St. Charles School, at 200 Penn Avenue. For children in kindergarten to eighth grade there is St. Clare School, at 151 Lindenwood Road; St. Patrick's School, at 3560 Richmond Road; and Rabbi Jacob Joseph School for Boys, at 3495 Richmond Road. For private high schools for the older kids, there is Monsignor Farrell High School, at 2900 Amboy Road; Francis School, at 4240 Amboy Road; and Richmondtown Preparatory School, at 2707 Hylan Boulevard.

Looking for a way around Staten Island? There are three local buses that run along the outside of Bay Terrace. The Staten Island Railway also has a stop within the neighborhood. The three local buses are the S54, S78, and S79. The S54 bus makes stops along Nelson Avenue and runs between the neighborhoods of West Brighton and Eltingville. The S78 bus makes stops along Hylan Boulevard and runs between the Bricktown Mall and the St. George Ferry Terminal. The S79 bus also makes stops along Hylan Boulevard, but this bus runs from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to the Staten Island Mall. The S79 also stops at the Eltingville Transit Center, where you can pick up other buses that run throughout Staten Island.

The Staten Island Railway runs from the South Shore, in Tottenville, to the North Shore, in the St. George Ferry Terminal. The train makes a stop at the Bay Terrace platform. To get to the platform, you can either enter at the entrance on the corner of Bay Terrace and South Railroad Avenue, or at the entrance on Justin Avenue between North Railroad Avenue and South Railroad Avenue.

Need to get into Manhattan without driving there? Around this neighborhood there are six express buses that take you to Manhattan. Five of these buses are run by the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the other one is ran by Atlantic Express. The X1, X4, X5, X7, and X8 are all run by the MTA and make stops along Hylan Boulevard. The X7 and X8 also make stops along Nelson Avenue. These five buses all start or end at the Eltingville Transit Center. The X1, X5, and X7 all go to into Midtown Manhattan, while the X4 and X8 go into Lower Manhattan. The X24 on the other hand is run by Atlantic Express and also makes stops along Hylan Boulevard. This bus runs between the South Shore of Staten Island and Midtown Manhattan.