Shore Acres, Staten Island

Shore Acres is a neighborhood of Staten Island, New York, one of the five boroughs of New York City. It is situated along the Upper New York Bay, just north of Fort Wadsworth and south of Rosebank.

The name originally referred to an enclave of upscale homes which were built in the vicinity in the 1930s by Cornelius G. Kolff, a prominent real estate developer and one-time President of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce (in 1951 a passenger ferry boat was named for Kolff; it was part of the Staten Island Ferry fleet until being decommissioned in 1987, when it was turned into a dormitory for prisoners at Rikers Island, where the city's largest jail is located — its use for this purpose continuing until the boat was scrapped in 2003). Soon after the homes were built, the name "Shore Acres" began to be applied to the locality itself, generally considered to be bounded by Bay Street on the west, the Upper New York Bay on the east, Nautilus Street on the north, and Arthur Von Briesen Park on the south. The latter is noted for its treacherous promontory, from which a 14-year-old boy — John Deppe, whose family once owned a popular restaurant and amusement center on the island's South Shore — fell to his death in 1970.

Shore Acres is distinctive for its secluded atmosphere, in large part provided by abundant shade trees. Along with Randall Manor, it is one of the few upper-class neighborhoods on Staten Island not situated in the series of highlands that begin with Ward Hill in the north and stretch to Lighthouse Hill in the south.