10/08/2026
“We were building a neighborhood, a neighborhood where…the world of ideas could join the world of art, and truth lend strength to beauty, and the shared vision of things that enrich man’s spirit could be focused, supported, embraced and spread abroad.” - Rev. Laurence J. McGinley, S.J., President of Fordham
But did you know there was already a neighborhood here before Fordham University and the Lincoln Center complex were built?
Before its ruins became a backdrop to film the original West Side Story film, Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill were bustling with music legends like Thelonious Monk and Nina Simone, scholars and librarians like Arturo Schomburg, and the rise of Latin Jazz and other cultural phenomena that shaped New York City.
San Juan Hill residents resisted the destruction of their neighborhood through protests, direct pleas to Fordham University’s president, Father Laurence McGinley, S.J., and even in the Supreme Court. The city approved the project anyway.
Afterlives of San Juan Hill is an exhibition by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies that helps us see and understand the context in which this community has suffered at the hands of “progress.” Visit the Ildiko Butler Gallery at Fordham University to see this exhibit through October 11th, 2026 only.
Click the link below to receive more information about the Afterlives of San Juan Hill exhibit & subscribe to our newsletter to learn about our latest initiatives!
🔗 centropr.hunter.cuny.edu
🔗 centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/subscribe
David Winters, Eliot Feld, Tony Mordente, Tucker Smith, and Russ Tamblyn in West Side Story (1961).
Portrait of Thelonious Monk, Minton’s Playhouse, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947, Library of Congress
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. "Portrait of Schomburg at his desk." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1870 - 1989.
Justo A. Martí Photographic Collection. Tito Puente at El Antiguo Palladium: JAMa_b52_f08_0001. Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY. Web. 30 Sep 2026.
Logan, J. R., Zhang, W., & Chunyu, M. D. (2015, January). Emergent ghettos: Black neighborhoods in New York and Chicago, 1880-1940. AJS; American journal of sociology; Table 1.
