Grymes Hill is a 374 feet (114 m) tall hill formed of serpentine rock on Staten Island, New York. It is the second highest natural point on the island and in the five boroughs of New York City. The neighborhood of the same name encompasses an area of 0.894 square miles (2.32 km2) and has a population of 8,263 people. The hill also includes parts of the Silver Lake neighborhood. The area includes part of ZIP Codes 10301 and 10304.
Etymology The hill is named after Cayetana Susana "Suzette" (née Bosque) Claiborne Grymes, daughter of Felicidad Fangui and Bartolomé Bosque, and wife of prominent New Orleans lawyer and member of the First Families of Virginia, John Randolph Grymes. Her first husband was the first governor of Louisiana, William Charles Cole Claiborne. She settled on Staten Island in 1836. Her daughter Athenais Grymes married New York banker, Louis A. von Hoffman, one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Club.
Geography Neighborhoods around Grymes Hill include Ward Hill to the north, Silver Lake to the west, Sunnyside and Emerson Hill to the south, to the southeast is Concord, and Stapleton and Stapleton Heights to the east. The east side of the hill is defined by Van Duzer Street and Richmond Road to the intersection with the Staten Island Expressway, which, with Clove Road, defines the southern side. On the west is Victory Boulevard. Some claim Cebra Avenue for the northern border, while others believe that the border is Louis Street.
Topology Grymes Hill, which has views of Lower New York Bay and the Narrows, is the second highest point on Staten Island after Todt Hill, reaching its greatest elevation of 374 feet (114 m) above sea level. Hero Park, 3 acres (12,000 m2) in size, is located at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Louis Street, abutting the Notre Dame Academy property. The areas hillsides and trees are protected by the Special Hillsides Preservation Zoning District which went into effect in 1987. The Serpentine Art and Nature Commons ("SANC") owns and maintains several trails on preservation land. Ownership of 11.5 acres (47,000 m2) of the hillside was assumed by the Trust for Public Land. They encouraged concerned neighbors to form SANC to maintain and improve the land as a nature preserve open to the community. Starting in the mid-19th century, breweries dug caves into the hill to use in the production of beer. Some of these caves off of Van Duzer Street were later incorporated into a popular restaurant, which provided catering for the movie The Godfather during shooting on Staten Island. The restaurant has since closed, and the entire site was redeveloped with a townhouse complex.
Geology Grymes Hill was carved by a receding glacier. The Staten Island Serpentinite, which is the serpentine or soapstone area that extends from New Brighton to Richmond, includes the hill country of the island. In places where glacial erosion was limited the stone weathered into a soft, yellowish, fractured condition to which the name "soapstone" is applied, but where the weathered stone was eroded the rock is hard and dense in texture and dark green in color. The rock's green, yellow or brown colors are often mottled with red.
History The area was originally named Signal Hill after a British signal station. Deeds of 1836 and thereabout show that the hill was known as Castleton Heights. Grymes Hill was part of a land grant in 1687 to Thomas Dongan, who served as Governor of the Province of New York. Between the years 1830 and 1833 a local developer, Major George Howard, purchased 42 acres, which included all land between Eddy and Louis streets. Major Howard built many of the hill's earliest homes, and his name survives in Howard Avenue, the hill's main street; a portion of this street was known for a time as Serpentine Road due to the hill's bedrock consisting of serpentinite.
Demographics For census purposes, the New York City Department of City Planning classifies Grymes Hill as part of a larger Neighborhood Tabulation Area called West New Brighton-Silver Lake-Grymes Hill SI0104]. This designated neighborhood had 37,010 inhabitants based on data from the 2020 United States Census. This was an increase of 1,526 persons (4.3%) from the 35,484 counted in 2010. The neighborhood had a population density of 18.6 inhabitants per acre (14,500/sq mi; 5,600/km2). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 45.0% (16,673) White (Non-Hispanic), 16.5% (6,116) Black (Non-Hispanic), 8.0% (2,975) Asian, and 4% (1,475) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 26.4% (9,771) of the population. According to the 2020 United States Census, this area has many cultural communities of over 1,000 inhabitants. This include residents who identify as Mexican, Puerto Rican, English, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, African-American, and Chinese. The largest age group was people 10-34 years old, which made up 33.8% of the residents. 66.5% of the households had at least one family present. Out of the 13,141 households, 41.9% had a married couple (18.1% with a child under 18), 5.7% had a cohabiting couple (2.1% with a child under 18), 19.6% had a single male (1.7% with a child under 18), and 32.8% had a single female (2.0% with a child under 18). 32.9% of households had children under 18. In this neighborhood, 47.4% of non-vacant housing units are renter-occupied. As of 2017, the median household income in Community District 1 was $48,018. In 2018, an estimated 21% of Grymes Hill and the North Shore residents lived in poverty, compared to 17% in all of Staten Island and 20% in all of New York City. One in fourteen residents (7%) 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 51% in Grymes Hill and the North Shore, compared to the boroughwide and citywide rates of 49% and 51% respectively. Based on this calculation, as of 2018, Grymes Hill and the North Shore are considered high-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying. The neighborhood is mixed commercial and residential. Like many areas of the northeastern part of the island, it suffered a decline following the construction of the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge in 1964, which shifted the commercial activity of the island towards its interior. Recent plans have called for the redevelopment of the harbor front area.
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