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Lincoln Square is the name of both a
square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
and the surrounding neighborhood on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. Lincoln Square is centered on the
intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...
of Broadway and Columbus Avenue, between West 65th and 66th streets. The neighborhood is bounded by Columbus and
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
avenues to the east and west, and 66th and 63rd streets to the north and south, respectively. However, the term can be extended to refer to the neighborhood between 59th and 72nd streets. It is bounded by Hell's Kitchen, Riverside South,
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
, and the Upper West Side proper. The Walt Disney Company’s New York City campus was located here, including
ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...
,
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
,
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, and studios for WABC-TV. The area includes the 66th Street–Lincoln Center station served by the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
's , and is anchored by Lincoln Center, a growing collection of
performing arts The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. P ...
venues, and the Manhattan campus of
Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
. Lincoln Square is part of Manhattan Community District 7 and its primary ZIP Code is 10023. It is patrolled by the 20th Precinct of the New York City Police Department.


History

Lincoln Square is located on the site of San Juan Hill, a historical community once comprising a predominantly
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
neighborhood of tenements. San Juan Hill was generally bordered by 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 Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...
that fought with
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the
Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
, but this is not certain. It was possibly the most heavily populated African-American neighborhood in Manhattan in the early 20th century. One of the blocks within the neighborhood contained almost 5,000 residents. Notable residents had included Thelonious Monk, who came to live there in 1922. In addition to the significant African American community, there was also an
Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...
community there, which has left its traces in the ''Bye-ya'' and '' Bemsha Swing'' compositions of Thelonious Monk, co-written much later with Denzil Best, who also grew up in this neighborhood. James P. Johnson also lived in the neighborhood in the 1910s and 1920s, during which time he composed the music for the " Charleston" dance. 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. The Amsterdam Housing Projects were built on the cleared land in 1948, replacing three blocks that had collectively housed 1,100 residents. During the 1950s and 1960s, a consortium of civic leaders and others led by John D. Rockefeller III built the Lincoln Center as part of the "Lincoln Square Renewal Project" during urban planner Robert Moses's program of
urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
s."Rockefeller Philanthropy: Lincoln Center"
( PDF format).
Respected architects were contracted to design the major buildings on the site, and construction started in 1959. Over the next thirty years the previously blighted area around Lincoln Center became a new cultural hub. Roth, Leland M. (2001). ''American Architecture: A History''. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. , . . Over 7,700 residents were displaced during the redevelopment project. The new developments contained 4,400 housing units, of which only a few were allocated to San Juan Hill's former residents. Most of the area's former residents instead moved to
Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
, another predominantly African American neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, as well as
the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
.


Name

Lincoln Center was named after Lincoln Square. The reason for naming the area "Lincoln Square" is unknown, however. The name was bestowed on the area in 1906 by the New York City Board of Aldermen, but records give no reason for choosing that name. There has long been speculation that the name came from a local landowner, because the square was previously named Lincoln Square. City records from the time show only the names Johannes van Bruch, Thomas Hall, Stephan de Lancey, James de Lancey, James de Lancey Jr. and John Somerindyck as area property owners. The area may also have been named as a tribute to U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
. One speculation is that references to President Lincoln were omitted from the records because the mayor in 1906 was George B. McClellan Jr., son of General George B. McClellan who was general-in-chief of the Union Army during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
and a bitter rival of Lincoln.


Demographics

Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Lincoln Square was 61,489, an increase of 6,250 (11.3%) from the 55,239 counted in
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
. Covering an area of , the neighborhood had a population density of .Table PL-P5 NTA: Total Population and Persons Per Acre – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010
Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, February 2012. Accessed June 16, 2016.
As of the 2010 Census, the racial makeup of the neighborhood was 73.4% (45,103)
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 4.4% (2,710)
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.1% (58) Native American, 11.2% (6,916) Asian, 0.0% (14)
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.3% (175) from other races, and 1.9% (1,196) from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 8.6% (5,317) of the population.Table PL-P3A NTA: Total Population by Mutually Exclusive Race and Hispanic Origin – New York City Neighborhood Tabulation Areas*, 2010
Population Division – New York City Department of City Planning, March 29, 2011. Accessed June 14, 2016.


Points of interest

* 27 West 67th Street Artists' studio cooperative built in 1901, anchor of the West 67th Street Artists' Colony Historic District * ABC Television Center East studios, and its flagship station WABC-TV * AMC Lincoln Square 13 * American Folk Art Museum * Amsterdam Houses, New York City Housing Authority * Leonard Bernstein Way (West 65th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway) *
Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...
* Church of St. Paul the Apostle * Church of the Good Shepherd (152 West 66th Street) * Columbus Circle * Dante Park * Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Lower School * Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts *
Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
Lincoln Center campus * Holy Trinity Church * Peter Jennings Way (W. 66th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West) *
Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...
*
Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus The Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus is a five-story Public school (government funded), public school facility at 122 Amsterdam Avenue (Manhattan), Amsterdam Avenue between 65th Street (Manhattan), West 65th and 66th Street (Manhatta ...
* Lincoln Center * Lincoln Square farmers market (at Richard Tucker Square) * Lincoln Square Synagogue * Manhattan New York Temple (
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
) * Merkin Concert Hall * Museum of Biblical Art ( American Bible Society) * New York Institute of Technology * New York Society for Ethical Culture * Professional Children's School * Richard Tucker Square * Sesame Workshop * West Side
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...


Notable residents

* Barbara Hillary (1931–2019), the first African-American woman to reach both the North Pole and South Pole, was born in San Juan Hill.


See also

* Lincoln Square Productions


References

Notes Further reading
Grand Buildings, but Also a Sense of Community
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', April 30, 2006


External links


Lincoln Square BID

Lincoln Square Community Council records, circa 1953–1981

Lincoln Square Urban Renewal Project photographs, circa 1957–1958
{{Authority control Squares in Manhattan