Amsterdam Houses Celebrate 60 Years
Amsterdam Houses, a cluster of 13 public housing buildings behind Lincoln Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, marked its 60th anniversary with a three days of celebration that included a moonlight Circle Line cruise on Friday and an entertainment-packed afternoon program yesterday.
Current and past residents filled the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center to recall decades of connections to family and neighbors of a housing complex begun in 1947.
An administrative law judge who traveled to the event from California, Stella Owens-Murell, said Amsterdam Houses exemplified "the spirit of community." She said the residents were "truly a village." Her sister, Carmen Owens, 54, who has completed a manuscript for a children's book titled "Katie the Cooking Kangaroo," said her parents arrived there in 1949. Her brother, Kevin Ray Owens, the only male backup vocalist for Luther Vandross, performed rhythm and blues with his band, Ray, Goodman & Brown.
The politicians representing the houses were all on hand: Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal said the houses were part of "the backbone" of the Upper West Side. City Council member Gale Brewer told The New York Sun about a new teen center that is being built there. Rep. Jerrold Nadler reminded the audience that these houses were here before Lincoln Center was built. State Senator Thomas Duane told the Sun about the time when, after the basketball court had been renovated, he made his baskets while the president of Manhattan, Scott Stringer, missed.
Onstage, James Spivey, 10, hit a hand-drum called a djembe, as the president of the Amsterdam Reunion Organization, Jacqueline Brown-Richardson, introduced the many volunteers and committee members who helped with the celebration.
Her husband, Freddie Richardson, a social worker whose family first moved into the complex in 1957, told the Sun about seeing Thelonius Monk, hat atop his head and cigarette dangling from his lips, hitting a lamppost with a coin to create sounds he might incorporate into his music. The crowd got a another taste of the famed jazz pianist and composer yesterday when Rome Neal performed a selection from his one-man play "Monk."
According to the preservation group, Landmark West!, which in 2005 added Amsterdam Houses to its list of buildings that merit landmark protection, the state of New York has determined that the complex is eligible to be placed on the state and national registers of historic places.
Mr. Stringer said the "human infrastructure" of Amsterdam Houses was remarkable and Pat "Rice" McCrary, whose mother was a community activist, summed up the close-knit feeling of the place by saying: "All the parents looked out for their children — and for each other's."
