Afterlives of San Juan Hill
In 1958, the Black and Brown community of San Juan Hill in New York City was destroyed to make way for the Lincoln Square Urban Renewal Project. Designated as a slum by the powerful, yet unelected, city planner Robert Moses, the eighteen-block neighborhood located on Manhattan’s west side (from 60th to 70th streets), was home to approximately 7,000 residents and 800 businesses. The neighborhood was taken through eminent domain to construct the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and to establish a Manhattan campus for Fordham University – dramatically shifting the cultural and demographic landscape of the neighborhood, the city, and our university. This exhibit contemplates Fordham’s role in the destruction of this community.
In 1958, the Black and Brown community of San Juan Hill in New York City was destroyed to make way for the Lincoln Square Urban Renewal Project. Designated as a slum by the powerful, yet unelected, city planner Robert Moses, the eighteen-block neighborhood located on Manhattan’s west side (from 60th to 70th streets), was home to approximately 7,000 residents and 800 businesses. The neighborhood was taken through eminent domain to construct the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and to establish a Manhattan campus for Fordham University – dramatically shifting the cultural and demographic landscape of the neighborhood, the city, and our university. This exhibit contemplates Fordham’s role in the destruction of this community.