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Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York (CCNY). It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973.
It opened in 1915, with a seating capacity of 8,000. The stadium hosted many athletic, musical, and theatrical events. It was one of New York's public landmarks.
Lewisohn Stadium was demolished in 1973 to make way for the $125 million North Academic Center. In 1985, a plaza outside the center was rededicated as the Lewisohn Plaza, in memory of the stadium and its philanthropist.
Along with Jasper Oval (right across Convent Avenue, also now demolished), Lewisohn was used throughout the academic year for many of the college's uptown campus outdoor intramural sports.
The CCNY Varsity Rifle Team had its indoor, 50' small bore range under the stadium steps, entered through a doorway at the north end. The coach, Jerrold Uretsky (Jerry), was an accomplished expert marksman with numerous medals and championships. For many years, the CCNY Rifle Team excelled in national, regional and local competition and was consistently in the NRA-sponsored Top Ten national ranking, with the best record of any team at CCNY. They traveled around the U.S. to compete against different collegiate teams as well as against Army and Navy which were the only teams they could never beat. Unfortunately, the team dissolved within 3 years of the loss of Lewisohn. The range was notoriously loud, with a steel backstop and concrete walls, and no acoustic insulation.David Keller, CCNY '67, member CCNY Varsity Rifle Team
Several noted conductors appeared at the stadium in concert with the Lewisohn Stadium Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Kurt Adler and Alfredo Antonini conducted a series of open-air summer concerts at the stadium for three decades during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, many conducted by . The New York Philharmonic - Leon Levy Digital Archives, Programs of Alfredo Antonini conducting the New York Philharmonic. Accessed 29 December 2022.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> City University of New York CUNY Academic Works - Music for the (American) People: The Concerts at Lewisohn Stadium 1922-1964 Johnathan Stern. The City University of New York, New York, 2009, p. 204 His Italian Night concerts often attracted an audience of over 13,000 guests for a single performance and featured noted soloists from the operatic stage including Licia Albanese and Richard Tucker. Stadium Concerts Review - Stadium Symphony Orchestra, Herald Square Press, Volume XLII, No. 1, 22 June 1959, p. 17
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Stadium Concerts Review program listing for Licia Albanese, Alfredo Antonini, Richard Tucker and The New York Philharmonic on 25 June 1959, p. 17 on nyphil.org Both Leonard Bernstein Photograoh of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium in 1941 on Getty Images of the New York Philharmonic and Kurt Adler of the Metropolitan Opera also made appearances at the stadium as conductors. Guest appearances were also made at the stadium's podium by: Pierre Boulez, Photograph of Pierre Boulez conducting at Lewisohn Stadium on Getty Images Andre Kostelanetz, Andre Kostelanetz conducts the Lewisohn Stadium Orchestra on July 5, 1955 on wnyc.org Henry Lewis. "Porgy and Bess Comes to the Met" - Henry Lewis conducts at Lewisohn Stadium in 1965 on metopera.org Dimitri Mitropoulos, Photograph of Dimitri Mitropoulos rehearsing at Lewisohn Stadium in the 1950s on Getty Images Julius Rudel, Julius Rudel conducts Mozart's Symphony # 35 ("The Hoffner")at Lewisohn Stadium in 1957 on wnyc.org Alexander Smallens, />Alexander Smallens conducts "Don Juan" at Lewisohn Stadium in 1959 on wnyc.org
Max Steiner, Photograph of Max Steiner rehearsing at Lewisohn Stadium in 1943 on Getty Images Alfred Wallenstein, Alfred Wallenstein conducts at Lewisohn Stadium in 1959 on WNYC.org and Mark Warnow. Photograph of Mark Warnow conducting Paul Robeson at Lewisohn Stadium in 1940 on Getty Images
Over the decades, a wide variety of noted soloists also appeared at the amphitheater including: Marian Anderson, Photograph of Marian Anderson and Leonard Bernstein rehearsing at Lewisohn Stadium in 1947 on Getty Images Louis Armstrong, Photograph of Louis Armstrong backstage at Lewisohn Stadium in 1960 on Getty Images Harry Belafonte, Jack Benny, Leonard Bernstein, Photograph of Leonard Bernstein rehearsing at the piano at Lewisohn Stadium in 1947 on Getty Images Jorge Bolet, Julius Rudel conducts Jorge Bolet in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 Op. 30 at Lewisohn Stadium July 31,1957 on wnyc.org Van Cliburn, Placido Domingo, Joan Field, Ella Fitzgerald, Kirsten Flagstad, Benny Goodman, Thomas Hayward, Jascha Heifetz, William Kapell, Photograph of William Kapell and Leonard Bernstein rehearsing at Lewisohn Stadium in 1947 on Getty Images Lotte Lenya, Yehudi Menuhin, Jan Peerce, Roberta Peters, Leontyne Price, Paul Robeson,. Photograph Paul Robeson performing at Lewisohn Stadium in 1940 on Getty Images Pete Seeger, Frank Sinatra, Photograph of Frank Sinatra performing at Lewisohn Stadium in 1943 on Getty Images Renata Tebaldi, Richard Tucker and Yma Sumac YMA SUMAC sings Clair de Lune at Lewisohn Stadium NYC
The orchestra conductors Eugene Ormandy and Leopold Stokowski each made a series of recordings for Everest Records with the "Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York." George Gershwin played his Rhapsody in Blue, and premiered his Cuban Overture at the stadium as well.Joan Peyser, The Memory of All That: The Life of George Gershwin, 1998 ch. 3, p. 199
Due to declining attendances, the regularly scheduled concerts were discontinued in 1966.
It was also used for CCNY's annual Army ROTC's reviews at the end of each academic year.
On August 16, 1946, the stadium was the site of a benefit concert for Sergeant Isaac Woodard, an African-American soldier in the U.S. Army who, upon being honorably discharged and returning home from service in the Pacific theater of World War II, had been brutally attacked and blinded with a blackjack by a white police officer in South Carolina earlier that year. The sold-out concert, organized by the New York Amsterdam News as the atrocity was gaining national attention, included performances by musicians Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Carol Brice, Woody Guthrie, and Billie Holiday. Orson Welles, who had helped to publicize the cruel attack on his radio program and in his New York Post column, also attended, and the event was co-chaired by boxer Joe Louis and New York City Mayor William O'Dwyer.
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