A Stadium for All New York

In the course of its eighty-five year history, the space we now call The Adolph Lewisohn Plaza of Honor has transformed itself again and again in its central role in the College and the city. For over half a century, as Lewisohn Stadium, it belonged not just to CCNY, but to all of New York. Now, once again, it has become a focus of our hopes and our memories.

The Stadium was the gift of financier-philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn, who provided $300,000 for the sprawling athletic field and grand amphitheater. With 19 rows of concrete seats and a Doric colonnade of 64 columns, each 15 feet high, its grandeur evoked the theaters of ancient Greece and Rome.

Originally designed to accommodate the rise of competitive sports among American colleges and universities, the site soon realized Lewisohn's ambition that it become the stadium of the City of New York".The opening event on May 29, 1915, was a performance of Euripides's The Trojan Women, and within a few years the Lewisohn Stadium Summer Concert series became a fixture of New York City's cultural life.

"Hello Everyone!" "Hello, Minnie!"

Under the spirited supervision of the late Minnie Guggenheimer for nearly 50 years, the Stadium's 6,000 seats were generally filled on summer nights -and the crowds occasionally swelled to 20,000 music lovers, young and old.' Even into the 50's, the seven-week summer concerts under the stars were, according to The New York Times, "the best entertainment buy in town. For 50 cents each, a couple could sit high up on the concrete seats - 'necking on the rocks, it was called -and hear every kind of music there was. From Victor Herbert to Artur Rubenstein to Leontyne Price to Pat Boone, from Odetta to opera's Tebaldi, Merrill and Albanese, from the Newport Jazz Festival to folk singer Judy Collins -almost every important talent in the world of music appeared at the stadium. "

Introducing the Stars

In fact, many of these music legends made their debut in the City's first outdoor music theater. In 1925, a young singer from Philadelphia won the stadium's citywide talent contest and brought the house down -her name was Marian Anderson. In 1927 George Gershwin played before an audience and five years later he brought his friend, Oscar Levant, to perform the concerto. Eugene Ormandy and Jose Iturbi had their debuts here -as did a young Ethel Merman, as well as Nelson Eddy. These are just a few of the performers who got their start at Lewisohn Stadium.

New Life as an Academic and Student Center

By the mid-sixties, however, competition from television and indoor concert arenas, along with a lack of parking in a more auto-centered world, meant that the summer concert series could no longer sustain itself. At the same time CCNY's own student body was rapidly expanding, and additional classroom and common space was sorely needed. In 1973 Lewisohn Stadium was torn down to make room for the $125,000,000 North Academic Center, containing more than 2,000 offices, classrooms, lecture halls and laboratories, as well as dining areas and the student center.

A New Law, A New Name

In September 1972, the City Council of New York passed a law designating "an area bounded by the north side of 136th Street to the south side of the former 138th Street, between Convent Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue, as Adolph Lewisohn Plaza." Most of this area is taken up by the NAC itself, but the red brick area in front of the building has seen the casual foot traffic of countless students and professors hurrying between classes or just catching up with friends and colleagues. The Plaza was rededicated on May 14, 1985, with a plaque at the northeast end of the NAC, and the reinstallation of Chester Beachís original bronze portrait bust of Lewisohn in the Amphitheater of the NAC. Thousands of students received their degrees in outdoor commencement ceremonies on the Plaza.

The Plaza of Honor : Lewisohn's Vision of a Great Public Space Continues

September 26, 2000 marks the opening of a dramatically redesigned Adolph Lewisohn Plaza of Honor. Based on a proposal by City College students in the School of Architecture, Architect Joseph Fuller of Fuller and D'Angelo P.C. has designed a circular pattern around a bronze College seal. Rings and rays of granite and brick emanate from these concentric circles, bearing the names of CCNY's Nobel Laureates and the presidents of the College. Perhaps most importantly, the Adolph Lewisohn Plaza of Honor also holds the memories of friends and alumni of The City College of New York, engraved in its stones for all time.