Tottenville, Staten Island
Tottenville is the southernmost neighborhood of Staten Island, New York City and New York State, with an area of approximately 1.7 square miles (4.4 km2). Originally named Bentley Manor by one of its first settlers, Captain Christopher Billop (1638–1726), after a small ship he owned named the Bentley, the district was renamed Tottenville in 1869, apparently in honor of the locally prominent Totten family, whose name can be seen on tombstones in one of the earliest churches, Bethel Methodist Church, on Amboy Road. The neighborhood is represented in the New York City Council by Joe Borelli and in the New York State Assembly by Ronald Castorina, Jr.
The Raritan band of the Unami Indians, a branch of the Lenape or Delaware nation, were the original inhabitants of all Staten Island, including Tottenville. The largest pre-European burial ground known as Burial Ridge, is located in Conference House Park.
During the colonial period and for a significant time thereafter, Tottenville was an important waypoint for travelers between New York City -- of which Staten Island did not formally become a part until 1898 -- and Philadelphia, as it was the site of a ferry that crossed the Arthur Kill to the Ferry Slip in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The ferry became less important when the Outerbridge Crossing opened in 1928, but continued to operate until 1963.
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