Dongan Hills is a neighborhood located within the New York City borough of Staten Island. It is on the Island's East Shore. Dongan Hills is bounded by Laconia Avenue on the southeast, Jefferson Avenue on the southwest, Richmond Road on the northwest, and Old Town Road to the north. It is adjacent to New Dorp and Grant City to the southwest, Todt Hill to the northwest, Old Town/Concord to the northeast, and South Beach and Midland Beach to the southeast.
Dongan Hills is part of Staten Island Community District 2 and its ZIP Codes are 10304 and 10305. Dongan Hills is patrolled by the 122nd Precinct of the New York City Police Department.
Etymology
The neighborhood was originally known by two separate names, the western half being called Hillside Park and the eastern half Linden Park. The name of Dongan Hills was originally Garretson's, named after a family that lived in the area since the late 1600s. The name was changed to Dongan Hills to avoid confusion with Garrison on Hudson. The neighborhood was renamed for Thomas Dongan, the Irish-born governor of the Province of New York after the Kingdom of England acquired it from the Netherlands in 1682. The "hills" alluded to in the name are the eastern ridge of Todt Hill, and much of what is colloquially referred to as "Todt Hill" by most island residents is reckoned as belonging to Dongan Hills by more authoritative sources such as the Staten Island Advance. However, there is a section of Dongan Hills that contains large hills. This portion of the neighborhood is called, the Dongan Hills Colony. "The Colony" is located above Richmond Road and borders the neighborhood of Todt Hill.
History
Dongan Hills was one of the first Staten Island neighborhoods to witness an upsurge in home construction after World War II, as many small, one-family homes were built there during the 1950s, and the city also built a public housing project in the community; known as the General Berry Houses, it is the southernmost public housing project on Staten Island. Population growth accelerated in the area when the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge linking Staten Island with Brooklyn was opened in November 1964. Indeed, recent arrivals from Brooklyn have overwhelmed the descendants of the original residents, and now form a majority of the neighborhood's population.
Most of the residents are Italian-American, with a small, but significant amount of Irish-Americans.
The Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Demographics
For census purposes, the New York City government classifies Dongan Hills as part of a larger neighborhood tabulation area called Old Town-Dongan Hills-South Beach. Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Old Town-Dongan Hills-South Beach was 24,835, a change of 1,818 (7.3%) from the 23,017 counted in 2000. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of . The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 74% (18,381) White, 3.1% (763) African American, 0.1% (36) Native American, 7.5% (1,860) Asian, 0% (9) Pacific Islander, 0.3% (69) from other races, and 1.4% (336) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.6% (3,381) of the population.
The entirety of Community District 2, which comprises Dongan Hills and other Mid-Island neighborhoods, had 134,657 inhabitants as of NYC Health's 2018 Community Health Profile, with an average life expectancy of 81.2 years. This is the same as the median life expectancy of 81.2 for all New York City neighborhoods. Most inhabitants are youth and middle-aged adults: 20% are between the ages of between 0–17, 25% between 25–44, and 29% between 45–64. The ratio of college-aged and elderly residents was lower, at 8% and 18% respectively.
As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 2 was $81,487, though the median income in Dongan Hills individually was $73,378. In 2018, an estimated 14% of Dongan Hills and Mid-Island residents lived in poverty, compared to 17% in all of Staten Island and 20% in all of New York City. One in sixteen residents (6%) were unemployed, compared to 6% in Staten Island and 9% in New York City. Rent burden, or the percentage of residents who have difficulty paying their rent, is 52% in Dongan Hills and Mid-Island, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 49% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, , Dongan Hills and Mid-Island are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.