August 2, 2022 by Peggy Taylor

“It was a Saturday of nostalgia and joy as 300-plus current and former residents of the Amsterdam Houses gathered in their community house and on their shady playgrounds to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the housing complex.

The thirteen buildings were built by the city in 1947 to house 1,084 World War II veterans. The tree-lined campus spreads over nine acres and stretches between West 61st and West 64th Streets, and Amsterdam and West End Avenues.

The Houses were there before ground was broken for Fordham University Law School (1961); before “West Side Story” was filmed (1961); before Lincoln Center was built (1955-69). Rising a modest 6-13 stories tall, they nonetheless dwarfed the surrounding tenements, before they would later be dwarfed by a forest of luxury condominiums, one 52 stories high.

But despite all the changes, despite the gentrification, despite the loss of residents who have moved to other boroughs and other cities, the Amsterdam Houses are still here and this is what residents, current and past, came to celebrate.”

Read more: https://www.westsiderag.com/2022/08/02/amsterdam-houses-celebration-joyous-and-nostalgic