Lemon Creek is a stream located on the South Shore of Staten Island in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It is one of the few remaining ground-level creeks in New York City.

Geography

Lemon Creek emerges from a conduit under Rossville Avenue and flows into Porzio's Pond, located north of the intersection of Woodrow Road and Maguire Avenue. Water from the pond reaches Lemon Creek both above ground and underground. Flowing generally southward, near the intersection of Drumgoole Road West and Maguire Avenue, Sandy Brook empties into the creek. This small stream now originates just south of Sharrotts Road and east of the West Shore Expressway. Lemon Creek continues southward under the

Korean War Veterans Parkway The Korean War Veterans Parkway is a parkway that traverses the South Shore of Staten Island, New York, in the United States. It begins at the Outerbridge Crossing toll plaza and runs from southwest to northeast to a merge with Drumgoole Road in t ...

and Drumgoole Roads, and begins to widen among marshes south of the Staten Island Railway. The creek turns eastward and passes under Bayview Avenue, then southward again. Just above its mouth, it receives a tributary from the east draining Wolfe's Pond, which is located within a city park of the same name. A marina and boat moorings are located here. Immediately below, it empties into Prince's Bay, part of

Raritan Bay Raritan Bay is a bay located at the southern portion of Lower New York Bay between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey and is part of the New York Bight. The bay is bounded on the northwest by New York's Staten Island, on the west by Per ...

, just off the corner of Bayview Avenue and Johnston Terrace. Throughout its above-ground length, Lemon Creek is generally regarded as the boundary between the neighborhoods of Prince's Bay and Pleasant Plains on Staten Island's South Shore. Its watershed covers about and lies within the

terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...

crossing Staten Island. The lower reaches of the creek, below the Staten Island Railway, are bordered by extensive marshes, the largest and most pristine on the south shore of Staten Island. This area includes both

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

and the only tidal freshwater marsh on Staten Island.

Parks

Much of the creek below Hylan Boulevard, and a long strip of shoreline to the west, is part of the 105.77 acre (42.80 ha) Lemon Creek Park, established in 1962. The park includes the Seguine Mansion. The northern, wooded portion of the park forms the 15.99 acre (6.47 ha) Lemon Creek Park Preserve. Wolfe's Pond and its source, Wolfe Brook, comprise the 341.33 acre (138.13 ha) Wolfe's Pond Park. The upper reaches of Lemon Creek, and most of Sandy Brook flow through Bloomingdale Park, 138.67 acres (56.12 ha).

History

The creek first appears in recorded history in 1670, as one of the boundaries of a 140-acre (56.7 ha) grant of land to Paulus Regrenier. The Abraham Manee Homestead may encompass Regrenier's original dwelling.

Clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s were once abundant at the mouth of the creek, in Prince's Bay. The oysters harvested there were once a delicacy exported to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and the export of oysters helped make the fortune of the local Seguine family. However, shellfishing ceased in the area in the 1920s due to an outbreak of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

traced to Raritan Bay oysters. However, while non-commercial clamming is still forbidden due to pollution, commercial clamming is permitted if the clams are transplanted into clean water before harvest, and the Lemon Creek marina is again a base for clamming vessels. Lemon Creek purple martin colony (92025)

Lemon Creek purple martin colony (92025)

Known in 1830 as Seguine's Creek for the Seguine family, this body of water was referred to as the Little North River by 1895. Shortly thereafter, it began to be called Lemon Creek, although the origin of the name is not known.

Fauna

The marshes along the lower creek provide a home for waterfowl such as swans, mallards, and black ducks, and a refuge for migrating birds, as well as

monarch butterflies The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...

. Lemon Creek Park is also home to the only purple martin colony in New York City, popular among local birdwatchers. In the center of the marshes on the lower creek is Ziel's Island, also known as Crab Island for the

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, while ...

s and

blue crabs Blue crab may refer to: * Blue Crab 11, an American sailboat design * ''Callinectes sapidus'' – Chesapeake or Atlantic blue crab of the West Atlantic, introduced elsewhere * ''Cardisoma guanhumi'' – blue land crab of the West Atlantic * '' Disc ...

that live there. Clams are commercially harvested off the mouth of the creek, and various marine fish can be caught from a fishing

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at the mouth of the creek.

References

{{Coord, 40, 30, 46.4, N, 74, 11, 57.6, W, display=title Rivers of Staten Island Rivers of New York (state)