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Originally named Bloomingview, its present name is derived from the French Huguenots , many of whom came to Staten Island in the 18th Century to escape religious persecution. The community gained a station along the Staten Island Railway soon after the line was extended to Tottenville in 1860 . This station was given the name Huguenot Park, even though no park was actually located nearby; by the 1970s the word "Park" had been dropped, but later a branch of the New York Public Library was opened one block west of the station, replacing what was once the smallest New York Public Library building just east of the station (still standing), and named the Huguenot Park Branch, perhaps in honor of the station's former name. Long noted for the beauty of its woodlands, Huguenot began to be transformed soon after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1964 , leading to a large number of Brooklyn residents relocating to Staten Island. The first visible sign of this transformation, however, came not in the form of new home construction, but rather with the building of the new Tottenville High School campus, which opened in 1972 in Huguenot (the existing high school buildings in Tottenville were converted into a Junior High School ). Public amenities have not kept up with the explosive pace of population growth in Huguenot and the surrounding neighborhoods that has taken place from the 1970s onward, as public transportation and sewer lines have not been upgraded fast enough to meet the increasing demand. Road conditions are also a problem, especially potholes which can cause damage to automobiles, and there are few organized activities for adolescents, a fact often blamed for the considerable amount of Vandalism that occurs there. However, the region is highly prosperous based on per capita income and similar economic measures. Tottenville High School registers the highest SAT scores and college admission rates of any public High School in New York City , but has gained media attention for cocaine use among students and several racial incidents. In 2004, a Tottenville High School math teacher with an open drug addiction was busted with 51-grams of cocaine and a loaded 9 mm hand gun. In recent years it has become increasingly customary to refer to the western part of Huguenot as a separate neighborhood called Woodrow . |
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