Moving Uptown: German-American Culture
at the Turn of the 20th Century
The Lower East Side’s Kleindeutschland and the Upper East Side’s Yorkville At the Historic Sixth Street Community Synagogue
Wednesday June 21st
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
323 East 6th St. (between First and Second Avenues)
Tickets: $12 general public / $10 for LESPI and Synagogue members
Seats are limited, purchase tickets HERE.
Come for a wonderful evening:
- Tour of the Sixth Street Community Synagogue Center, with Dr. Elissa Sampson. The synagogue, founded in 1940, resides in what was originally the German-American St. Mark’s Church (1848).
- Illustrated lectures on:
- Kleindeutschland at the turn of the 20th Century,
by genealogist Dr. Richard Haberstroh. - Yorkville’s development into a German-American Community,
by Elizabeth Fagan of FRIENDS of the Upper East Side Historic Districts.
- Kleindeutschland at the turn of the 20th Century,
- An informal reception with light kosher refreshments.
During the decades around the turn of the 20th century, waves of German-Americans left their homes in the East Village/Lower East Side’s Kleindeutschland and headed north to Yorkville. This migration started with the construction of the Second Avenue El train in 1874, and accelerated with the terrible General Slocum Steamship disaster on June 15, 1904, when over a thousand people died during an outing sponsored by St. Mark’s Church on East 6th St.
Although most German-Americans have since dispersed from both neighborhoods, it’s still possible to see traces of this remarkable culture, such as at the German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse building (1889) on St. Mark’s Place; Ottendorfer Library (1884) on Second Ave. at St. Mark’s Pl.; St. Joseph’s Church on East 87th St. (1895); and the century-old Heidelberg Restaurant on 2nd Ave. near East 85th St.
For more info contact Richard at info@LESPI-nyc.org or 347-827-1846.
