Through never-before-accessed records and archives, historical footage, expert commentary, and interviews with residents, 'San Juan Hill: Manhattan's Lost Neighborhood' traces the neighborhood's rise and fall and explores the vibrant people, arts, and culture whose enduring legacy still resonates today.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the area where Lincoln Center now stands was known by another name: San Juan Hill. Predating the golden age of the Harlem Renaissance, musical phenomena like Bebop and the Charleston bloomed in this cultural mecca; San Juan Hill’s clubs and theaters nurtured creative geniuses like James P. Johnson, Josephine Baker, Rogelio “Ram” Ramirez, and Thelonious Monk; and businesses and community centers bustled throughout the neighborhood.
Home to a largely working-class community, San Juan Hill was redlined in the 1930s and targeted by “urban renewal” in the 1940s and 1950s, when thousands of residents were displaced to make way for Amsterdam Houses, Lincoln Center, Fordham University, and additional developments. Their stories of home, belonging, and resilience have gone untold for far too long…until now. Through never-before-accessed historical footage, expert commentary, first-person storytelling with former residents, and narration by Academy Award-winning actress Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood traces the neighborhood’s rise and fall—and celebrates the people, arts, and culture whose enduring legacy still resonates today.
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