This population tragically diminished with the noted General Slocum Disaster in the East River, when over a thousand German immigrants perished on a steamship hired for a Sunday School picnic for St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Within a year, most of the German community had left the neighborhood – many who moved north to Yorkville, which became the “new” home of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Join noted tour leader Justin Ferate to discover the remnants of the German roots of the Lower East Side including the Astor Library, the German-American Shooting Club, the Ottendorfer Library, an original Turnverein, Tompkins Square and the haunting memorial to the children who died in the General Slocum Disaster. The tour will also include a private visit to the former St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.