Livingston, Staten Island

Livingston is a name sometimes applied to the northeastern portion of West Brighton, a neighborhood located on the North Shore of New York City's borough of Staten Island.

The original name for the district was Elliotville, after a renowned ophthalmologist, Samuel MacKenzie Elliot, who by 1840 had acquired more than 30 homes in the community. The present name of Livingston appears to have been coined by officials of the Staten Island Railway who, for reasons that have never become clear, gave that name to a station built near the current intersection of Richmond Terrace and Bard Avenue. This station was situated on the now-defunct North Shore branch of the railway, on which passenger service ceased in 1953; the tracks on this branch are still there, but all traces of the Livingston station have been removed, as is the case with the two other former stations on either side (Sailors Snug Harbor and West Brighton).

While exact official boundaries do not exist for any designated places on Staten Island, Livingston is most commonly regarded as being enclosed by Bement Avenue on the west, the Kill Van Kull shoreline on the north, Henderson Avenue on the south, and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center on the east. It is dominated by large, older homes built before 1900, and its streets are shaded by spreading oak and elm trees.