 thumbnail|right|260px|the neighborhood of tottenville in staten island is shown highlighted in orange tottenville is the southernmost neighborhood of staten island, new york city and new york state, with an area of approximately . originally named bentley manor by one of its first settlers, captain christopher billop (1638â1726), after a small ship he owned named the bentley, the district was renamed tottenville in 1869, apparently in honor of the locally prominent totten family, whose name can be seen on tombstones in one of the earliest churches, bethel methodist church, on amboy road. ==history== ===early history=== the raritan band of the unami indians, a branch of the lenape or delaware nation, were the original inhabitants of all staten island, including tottenville. the largest pre-european burial ground known as burial ridge, is located in conference house park. right|thumb|welcome to tottenville sign thumb|bethel united methodist church thumb|a view of arthur kill, the waterway between staten island and the new jersey mainland during the colonial period and for a significant time thereafter, tottenville was an important way-station for travelers between new york city (of which staten island did not formally become a part until 1898) and philadelphia, as it was the site of a ferry that crossed the arthur kill to the ferry slip in perth amboy, new jersey. this ferry became less important when the outerbridge crossing opened in 1928, but continued to operate until 1963. two distinctive landmarks, the bethel united methodist church (erected in 1840 and rebuilt on the same site in 1886 after a fire had destroyed the original structure), and an abandoned factory originally built in 1900 for use as a smelting plant and later operated for recycling by lucent technologies (which closed the facility in 2001), stand at the northern approaches to the neighborhood. tottenville is bounded on the west and south by the arthur kill and on the east by raritan bay (the mouth of the raritan river lies immediately to the south of where the arthur kill empties into the bay, which is also sometimes reckoned as being part of the atlantic ocean). at the opposite end is the conference house, built by christopher billop and so named because it was the site of abortive negotiations in 1776 to end the revolutionary war (it is now the centerpiece of the city park known by the same name). the billop family, who built the estate in 1678, continued to own it and the surrounding property at the time the 1776 meeting to
Neighborhoods_in_Staten_Island Populated_coastal_places_in_New_York