A forgotten part of New York’s West Side is brought into the spotlight when Stanley Nelson’s documentary San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s lost neighborhoodhas its world premiere this fall at Lincoln Center.
It is an appropriate venue because in the early 1960s the San Juan Hill neighborhood between W58th and W70th Streets was demolished to make way for Lincoln Center itself.
At the time, locals marched with banners reading, “Shelter before culture” and “You don’t tear down houses when there’s a housing shortage.” But the protests were ignored by city officials, led by notorious urban planner Robert Moses, and the predominantly black and Latino neighborhood, known for its role in the West Side Story disappeared under the bulldozers.
In the early 20th century, San Juan Hill was a vibrant community. Musical phenomena like bebop and Charleston were born here, its clubs and theaters nurtured creative geniuses like James P. Johnson, Josephine Baker, and Thelonious Monk, and art spaces like the Lincoln Square Arcade counted luminaries like Eugene O’Neill, George Bellows, and Robert Henri among their residents.
Home to a predominantly working-class community, San Juan Hill was closed off in the 1930s and was the target of “urban renewal” in the 1940s and 1950s, when thousands of residents were relocated to make way for the Amsterdam Houses, Lincoln Center, Fordham University and other construction projects.
It is not the first time that the area’s history has inspired new works. In 2022, Lincoln Center also hosted the premiere of a musical piece by Etienne Charles entitled San Juan Hill: A New York Storyand Charles commented: “Before there were seats, there were streets.”
“Most people don’t know the neighborhood unless they had family there when it was at its peak. San Juan Hill is the birthplace of the Charleston dance and the New York Amsterdam News – the oldest black newspaper in New York,” the composer told Ebony. “Zora Neale Hurston also lived here at certain points in her career.”
The film was directed by award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson. San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s lost neighborhood traces the rise and fall of the neighborhood through never-before-seen records and archives, historical footage, expert commentary, and interviews with residents, and explores the vibrant people, arts, and culture whose enduring legacy still resonates today.
The film is narrated by Ariana DeBose and will have its world premiere on Wednesday, October 9th at 6pm at Alice Tully Hall as part of the 62nd New York Film Festival. Following the screening, director Stanley Nelson, producer Rita Coburn and special guests will host a panel discussion.
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 10 at noon, with presales for Lincoln Center members beginning at noon on September 5 and for FLC members during the NYFF62 presale. Tickets are available on a choose-what-you-pay basis, starting at $5.
