The plan to create the world's largest performing arts complex was so audacious in 1959 that President Dwight David Eisenhower was summoned from Washington to turn the first shovel of dirt near the intersection of Broadway and 64th Street. In the half-century since ground was broken Lincoln Center has come to embrace 30 indoor and outdoor performance facilities. The neighborhood that grew up around the "great cultural adventure" is compact, embracing the blocks between West 59th and West 72nd streets from the southwest side of Central Park to the Hudson River. This was farmland until the opening of the 9th Avenue El in 1879 and after that it was quickly occupied by ramshackle tenements that stood hard by factories and the city stockyards. It has always been assumed that Lincoln Square was named for Abraham Lincoln but there is no proof to confirm the speculation. Decades of neglect made the blighted area ripe for the urban renewal that resulted in Lincoln Center. High-rise condominiums have sprouted to complement the performing arts venues and they dominate the neighborhood with pockets of pre-war brownstone survivors hiding in their shadows. Lincoln Center was created with a mission for education and facilities like the esteemed Julliard School inject a young vibrancy into an otherwise well-heeled residential environment. Thursdays and Saturdays find Lincoln Square residents, about half of whom are renters, headed for Tucker Square and the Greenmarket farmer's market for fresh seafood, grass-fed beef and artisanal cheeses. Lincoln Center has its own subway stop; the M5, M7, M10, M11, M66 and M104 bus lines all stop within one block. By Doug Gelbert
Trains:
Buses:
Rental Prices:
$2,500 ― $8,750Sales Prices:
$599,000 ― $2,100,000Landmarks:
Holy Trinity Church, Lincoln Center, Lincoln Square, Merkin Concert HallSchool Districts:
3Police Precincts:
20
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