Heritage Park (Staten Island)

Heritage Park is a passive recreational park located along the waterfront of Staten Island’s north shore on the Kill Van Kull and was created through a partnership between The Trust for Public Land, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and NYC Parks.

In 2004, The Trust for Public Land, in conjunction with The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, purchased 9.7 acres of land upon which the former Blissenbach Marina sat and donated it to NYC Parks to be used as a public park.

The acquisition, brownfield remediation, and capital renovations were funded by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s Hudson-Raritan Estuary Resources Program.  Construction of the park began in 2012 and was managed by The Trust for Public Land. The site now boasts a rolling lawn with new trees, perimeter landscaping, walking paths, benches, a parking lot, and offers dramatic views of the Bayonne Bridge. It also provides public access to the waterfront in a community long cut off from the Kill Van Kull.

Heritage Park was named to commemorate the historical and cultural relevance of the neighboring area.  Richmond Terrace has its beginnings as a Native American trail, before becoming a battleground during the Revolutionary War, and then a center of the anti-slavery community before the Civil War.

The property is the first link in the planned North Shore Waterfront Greenway, an effort being spearheaded by Staten Island’s Community Board One to provide a continuous greenway along Staten Island’s North Shore, studded with a series of waterfront parks.  The property was a high priority for local groups including the Protectors of Pine Oak Woods and the North Shore Waterfront Conservancy, and it was an acquisition priority for the New York-New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program.