San Juan Hill, Manhattan

San Juan Hill was a predominantly African American neighborhood of tenements on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City, which was largely razed as part of urban renewal to make way for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The exact area is under some debate but its general borders were Amsterdam Avenue (to the east), West End Avenue (to the west), 59th Street (to the south), and 65th Street (to the north). It has been suggested that the area was named after the 10th Cavalry that fought with Teddy Roosevelt at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War but this is not certain.^{[citation needed]} It was possibly the most heavily populated African-American neighborhood in Manhattan in the early 20th century. In 1940, the New York City Housing Authority characterized the area as "the worst slum section in the City of New York," and made plans to renew the area by demolishing the old tenements and building in its place the Amsterdam Housing Projects and Lincoln Center.

External links

• The Upper West Side Book: Introduction