Here Victory Boulevard rolls through the Bulls Head neighborhood in northwest Staten Island. Though the road was built in 1816 as Richmond Turnpike, a toll road by a company owned by Vice-President Daniel Tompkins, who lived in Stapleton where the road begins, it’s hardly Staten Island’s oldest road — both Richmond Terrace and Amboy Road, named in the early 1700s, follow Native American trails that precede the coming of the white man. When built, Victory Boulevard was a major route from NYC to Philadelphia, as ferries connected it to Manhattan as well as New Jersey (from what became Travis, on the Arthur Kill).
In 1918 the road was renamed Victory Boulevard, after the armistice ending World War I was signed.
The busy road, a major commercial center in spots, connects Stapleton, Grymes Hill, Sunnyside, Castleton Corners, Westerleigh, Bulls Head and Travis.
4/29/13