Port Richmond is a neighborhood situated on the
North Shore of
Staten Island, a
borough of
New York City. It is along the waterfront of the
Kill Van Kull, with the southern terminus of the
Bayonne Bridge serving as the boundary between it and
Elm Park, the neighborhood which borders it on the west. Formerly an independent village, it is one of the oldest neighborhoods on the island. In the 19th century it was an important transportation and industrial center of the island, but this role has vanished nearly completely, leaving a largely
blue collar residential area bypassed by the shift of development of the island to its interior after the 1960s. The formerly bustling commercial center along
Richmond Avenue (now Port Richmond Avenue) had been largely abandoned at the time, But in recent years many small businesses have opened in the area with the commercial activity shifting inland to
Forest Avenue (or leaving the neighborhood altogether and relocating to the
Staten Island Mall when the latter opened in the summer of 1973).