Fireplace Remodeling in Lincoln Square, NY

Lincoln Square is located on the site of San Juan Hill, a predominantly African American 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 that fought with Theodore Roosevelt at the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, 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 here in 1922. In addition to the significant African American community, there was also an Afro-Caribbean 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.