USA > New York > New York City > New York panorama : a comprehensive view of the metropolis > Part 11
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In the second half of the 19th century brewing in New York came un- er the virtual monopoly of German-Americans. In 1859 Peter Doelger unded the brewery firm of his name. In 1854 Anton Hupfel founded e brewing company which also bears his name today. The Lion Brewery, hich has been in continuous operation since 1850, was the first to bring fie Pilsener style beer to the American table. In 1883 Piel's beer began to jam as the result of the establishment of a gigantic brewery in Brooklyn. ther New York breweries founded in this period by German immigrants persons of German stock are Pilser Brewing Company, Eberhart Brew- g Company, Ebling Brewery, John Eichler Brewing Company, and Jacob uppert Brewery.
As the German population of the city increased during the latter part the 19th century, a settlement known as "Little Germany" began to tend along the East Side, from Houston Street to what is now known as orkville. Tompkins Square, its center, was popularly known as der Weisse ea
h arten-the white garden. Until the influx of Italians and Slavs at the rn of the century, almost all of the lower East Side was dotted with Ger- an beer halls, German clubs and German stores. Today there still stand an
ndmarks of that period: the old Catholic Church of St. Nicholas on Sec- nd Street east of First Avenue, St. Mark's Church on St. Mark's Place ear Second Avenue, Beethoven Hall on Fourth Street, Luchow's restau- nt on Fourteenth Street, Teutonia Hall on Sixteenth Street, and Scheffel all on Third Avenue near Seventeenth Street.
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IO0 NATIONALITIES
By 1896 the Free Workers' School, which had conducted most of activities on Saturdays and Sundays, underwent reorganization and € pansion because of the Raines Law forbidding any institutions other th: hotels to remain open on Sundays. A house was rented at 206 East Eigh Fourth Street and the name of the organization was changed to the Wor Le men's Educational Association. In 1898, the Workmen's Educational A sociation established a Home Association, and in 1906 moved to t present Labor Temple, one of the largest centers of social activities present-day Yorkville. Until the World War the Association enjoyed bo as popularity and prosperity, but anti-German feeling evidently discourage membership. Prohibition, which virtually brought an end to the Ass ciation's lighter festivities, dealt the organization an even greater blow. lost many of its German members and had to seek the support of oth national groups. Today relatively few of the organizations that meet Labor Temple conduct their activities in the German language. An German feeling during the World War also resulted in many Germa firms operating under American names. This was especially true of tl banks.
In 1930 the population of German stock in New York was 600,084. ( these, 237,588 were born in Germany, while 362,496 were born in tl United States of German or mixed parentage. Germans were more nume ous than any other foreign white stock in Queens, where they were 26 percent of the total foreign white stock; second only to the Italians Richmond, where they were 14.5 percent; and in Manhattan they were e: ceeded by the Italians and Irish, representing II.3 percent. In the Bror they made up 10.3 percent of the foreign white stock; in Brooklyn, 7 percent.
In Harlem the Germans have been crowded out by Italians and Slav Formerly populated almost entirely by Germans, Harlem today still hi the landmarks of its German days, such as the Harlem Casino, the Alhan bra, and a number of churches. Yorkville, centering around East Eight Sixth Street, is at present the only section in Manhattan with a fairly con pact German population.
Forty years ago the Bronx was almost exclusively a German distric Now, in spite of the large quota of Germans in that part of the city, th German element is noticeable only in scattered sections of the borough Among these are the Morrisania section around Third Avenue and 161: Street, the Van Cortlandt section, Pelham Bay, Franz Sigel Park and Cro tona Park.
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Brooklyn once had a large number of German sections such as the Bor- ligh Hall vicinity, the Myrtle Avenue section, DeKalb Avenue, the Bed- mord section, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Flatbush, Ridgewood and Williams- jurg. At present only the Ridgewood section has a more or less compact Herman population.
A In many sections of Queens a large proportion of the population is of erman origin. These sections include Astoria, Woodside, Middle Village, th einway, Maspeth, Newton, Elmhurst, Corona, Flushing. More than half e population of Jamaica is of German stock. The residents of Staten ot land are largely of German origin. In Stapleton certain signs of Ger- pe lan community life have survived. But as a whole, the German element SÓ f the city is being rather rapidly absorbed.
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Those of Irish stock in New York (in 1930 numbering 614,000, of h hom 535,000 were from the Irish Free State) due to their kinship ith the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture easily adapted themselves to new onditions, without isolating themselves for any great period from the main stream of American life. Thus the Irish have never created anything ke an Irish quarter in New York; they have always lived "all around the et own."
Most of the Irish who came to this city before the American Revolution ere Protestants from the North, although the first record of an Irishman the colony of New Amsterdam is that of a Catholic, Hugh O'Neal, who was married in 1643 to the widow of Adriean de Donck, a Dutch armer of the Bronx. In 1683 another Irish Catholic, Sir Thomas Dongan, ecame governor of the English province of New York, and was re- ponsible for the charter which has come down to us in modified form. a
ir Thomas opposed the keeping of slaves, opened the first free common n chool in America in 1685, and proclaimed the doctrine of religious tol- y rance.
Sir Thomas' compatriots in the little colony, slightly more than 400, vere the town's blacksmiths, tailors, weavers, woolcombers and cobblers. everal managed to attain a higher estate; there was, for instance, An- hony Duane of County Galway, after whom a street was named, whose h on, James, was New York's first mayor after the Revolution. Thomas .ynch, a shipping agent and importer, established a thriving business on Dock Street. William Mooney, the "Liberty Boy," was the founder and S
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first Grand Sachem, in 1789, of the Society of Tammany, then called til sit Columbian Order. he
The great wave of Irish immigration that began in the middle 1800 had its impetus in the Irish famine of 1846-47, bringing more than tve million Irish to the United States in less than 20 years. Most of these som tled in New York. They brought with them a passion for political ar religious freedom and hatred for the English. The poverty and politic persecution of the Irish in Ireland account for much of the subseque development of the Irish in America. Most of the Irish were peasar whose ancestors had been farmers for centuries. Because they associate poverty with life on the land, they preferred to remain, for the most pa in the large cities. Totally unequipped to cope with the problems of highly industrialized community such as New York, they were forc down to the level of the lowest economic groups.
Tammany, although it had been founded by an Irishman, was not co trolled by the Irish in the first few years of its existence. In 1817 the Iri group within the organization made its first successful bid for control wh it succeeded in electing Thomas Addison Emmett, a distinguished Iri lawyer, to Congress. From that time on Tammany became increasingly Iris and Irish political leaders built Tammany into the city's most powerf political organization. "Honest John" Kelley, Richard Croker, Charley Murphy, "Big Tim" Sullivan were some of those who perfected til technique which enabled that organization to acquire control of eve s branch of municipal activity and to hold it for almost a century. ch
Most of Tammany's continued power and prestige lay in its ability provide jobs and political preferment for its supporters, and for the Iri immigrants who were constantly pouring into the city during these yearof The process of filling vacancies in the police and fire departments wiou Irish gave to these branches of the municipal service an Irish complexioni which has persisted to this day. Other department vacancies were fill with deserving political henchmen.
Much of the hostility which the Irish encountered on their first arriv in this country was due to their Catholic faith. In many cities there we even anti-Catholic riots, but from the beginning the Catholic Church hth been allowed to develop in New York with little friction. Its growth fech this city owes a great debt to Irish membership and to three great Iri he prelates-Cardinals McCloskey, Farley and Hayes. The church preserveEng much of the Irish cultural heritage ruthlessly suppressed by the Engli to invader, and a great deal of the Celtic genius thus had its only out!f
te Jane
NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 103
thrithin the church. The church continued to play a great part in the life of he Irish American, and has always reflected him at every stage of his de- bojelopment. In the beginning outside contributions were necessary to build twhe city's first Catholic church, St. Peter's, erected in 1786-a simple seltructure to which Charles IV of Spain gave $1,000. By 1879 there stood, anis a symbol of the progress which had been made since that time, the tichagnificent St. Patrick's Cathedral, erected entirely from funds raised er mong local Catholics.
an The Irish of New York have always participated in the dramatic, lit- aterary and industrial activities of the city. To Broadway they have given bar lome of its finest actors, dramatists and producers. For a period the Ameri- of an stage was dominated by such Irish figures as John Drew, Ada Rehan, rce Chauncey Olcott, among the actors; Augustin Daly, among the producers; nd, among the playwrights, Dion Boucicault, James A. Herne and Wil- cogiam Harrigan.
ris Among composers have been Victor Herbert and Edward MacDowell; hemong singers Geraldine Farrar and John McCormack. Horace Greeley rignd E. L. Godkin were among the outstanding journalists of Irish stock istwho helped make New York a newspaper capital. Irish men of letters have rfincluded Finley Peter Dunne, Lafcadio Hearn, Harvey O'Higgins and rlboyce Kilmer.
th In medicine the Irish gave to the city Dr. John Byrne, one of the earliest veresearchers in cancer, and William McNeven, a pioneer of American medi- ine. To the industrial development of the last century the Irish contrib- vøted such inventors and engineers as Christopher Colles, Patrick B. De- riganey, Robert Fulton, John Phillip Holland, John Bart McDonald and ear ohn Joseph Carty. One of the earliest department stores in the city was witfounded by Alexander Stewart, and one of the most successful American righipping lines by W. R. Grace, another Irishman.
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English, Scotch, Welsh TIVE vel
The first mass migration of Englishmen to New York came in 1664 hawhen Colonel Richard Nicolls forced the surrender of Peter Stuyvesant, jechristened the hitherto Dutch town of New Amsterdam and became rishe first British governor of New York. In the first years of British rule, veenglish and Welsh arrived in large numbers and settled for the most part lion the tip of Manhattan below Wall Street and in the southwestern area tlof Staten Island.
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While Scotch settlers had trickled into the city since its founding, ngl was not until 1764 that they began to arrive in any considerable nusti bers, as the result of the border wars between England and Scotlar. With them came the "Ulster Scots" or Scotch-Irish who had settled Northern Ireland before migrating to the colonies. The heavy flow Scotch and Scotch-Irish continued for ten years. el
By the end of the eighteenth century, a colony of several hundr Scotch weavers, mainly from Paisley, had settled in what was then call the Village of Greenwich.
Little remains of these settlements, and today New York's more thb six percent of the nation's total British population is scattered througi the city. Tottenville, Staten Island, is the only thing resembling a "Briti F quarter"; the site of an old English colony, it still houses some of t descendants of the early settlers. In 1930 New York's English populatie was 178,703, Welsh 5,000, and Scotch 71,187.
British influence has made itself felt on the governmental structure well as on the economic and cultural tone of New York. In the formati period of the city's history it was British enterprise that raised the c: to commercial and maritime importance. It was in this same period English rule that the molds were cast of the city's political structure much of which has remained to this day.
British shipping interests which first made New York an importa seaport still figure largely in the city's commercial life. Chief among te lines which handle New York's sea-going traffic is the British-own Cunard White Star Line.
Relic of the days when England set the pattern for American literatu are the many New York publishing houses which have grown out American branches of long established British concerns. These inclu Thomas Nelson & Son, The Macmillan Company, and Longmans, Gre & Company.
English influence on New York architecture is seen in many of ti city's churches and in the manor-like homes of Westchester. Churches English origin are Trinity Church, St. Mark's in the Bouwerie, Fir Presbyterian Church, rebuilt on the corner of Rutgers and Henry Stree in 1796, and the Scotch Presbyterian Church on Grand Street which dat from 1756.
The Van Cortlandt Manor House in Van Cortlandt Park, the Philip Manor House in Yonkers and the Jumel Mansion overlooking the upp reaches of the Harlem River are among the more celebrated copies of t.
NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 105
glish country house. Modern counterparts are seen in Westchester imi- nunions of this style.
flan Chief among the old English landmarks which dot the city is Fraunces ed ivern at Pearl and Broad Streets, celebrated rendezvous before and after ( Revolution. Ye Olde Chop House at 118 Cedar Street was also a W ·11-known resort of Colonial days, patronized by Franklin, Burr, Madi- ndrea and Thomas Paine.
calle The city's water supply system owes its origins to a British model used London in 1613. English metal construction set the patterns for thaooklyn Bridge and New York's sewers followed the designs of British ouggineers.
ritis Famous Britishers in New York's history are Gilbert Blackford, instru- f thental in founding the Aquarium; Samuel Gompers, of Jewish origin, atide first president of the American Federation of Labor; Thomas and hn Henderson of the Anchor Steamship Line; Duncan Phyfe, a Scot re no created beautiful examples of American furniture and in 1795 opened ativshop on Fulton Street, on the site of the present Hudson Terminal cihilding; John Paul Jones; Peter Fleming, the surveyor who laid out the d dades for New York State's first railroad; Archibald Gracie, founder of ture Lying-in Hospital, the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church and the lamber of Commerce. James Lenox and Andrew Carnegie were Scots rtanked with New York's growth. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes is the son of a Welsh minister. Commodore Perry and Henry Ward Beecher undere of Welsh descent.
Chief among the British organizations are the Societies of Saint George, tulint Andrew and Saint David, the patron saints respectively of England, t cotland and Wales. St. George's Society, with headquarters at 19 Moore ludreet, gives its annual dinner on St. George's Day, April 23, and retroughout the year carries on philanthropic work among British resi- ents in the city. St. Andrew's Society, a Scotch organization with head- thiarters at 105 East Twenty-Second Street, is similar to St. George's society in aims and functions, climaxing its activities with dinner on Fint. Andrew's Day, November 30, the main feature of which is the cere- eefonial serving of the haggis, borne in by Highland bagpipers as Robert atturns' Address to the Haggis is recited. The Welsh St. David's Society 289 Fourth Avenue carries on philanthropic work and stimulates and ipsreserves interest in the Welsh language, literature and customs.
Other British organizations in New York include the Daughters of på
the British Empire, which maintains the Victoria Home for the Aged,
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106 NATIONALITIES
near Ossining; the British Apprentice's Club, made up of cadet officepar of the English merchant marine; the British Great War Veterans eng America; the British Luncheon Club; the Over-Seas League, and tl B British Club of New York. The last three are social organizations wi a general membership of English-born New Yorkers.
The British Empire Chamber of Commerce, a semi-official institution operating under a license from the British Board of Trade, has office in the British Empire Building at 620 Fifth Avenue, where it maintain a permanent exhibition of British products, and publishes a monthly tracom paper, the British World.
The English Folk Dance Society at 637 Madison Avenue is a brandF of the English Folk Dance and Song Society founded by Cecil Sham in 19II.
The Federation of Scottish Societies includes among its member organen zations several lodges, the Caledonia Club, the Celtic Society and thiso Gaelic Society.
The English-Speaking Union of the United States, an organization Hep promote mutual understanding between the English and American peoplepc has 13,000 members in this country, and is affiliated with the Englis speaking Union of the British Empire, which has a membership of mo than 10,000.
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Russians
The references to Russian immigration, as reported by the United Statein Census Bureau, do not give even an approximate picture of the numb and importance of the Russians in New York as an ethnic or linguist ng group. All immigrants from Russia, which is populated by more than & nationalities representing many ethnic, linguistic, racial or religious group are classified as "Russians" in the census, even though they do not speakir Russian.
Of the four important waves of immigration from Russia, the fir which arrived in 1880, was largely composed of Jews from Poland ai Ukrainia who fled pogroms and unbearable economic conditions. The sella ond influx began about 1890, with Slavs of the peasant class well in titiv majority. The Russian revolutionary upheaval of 1905 and its subseque defeat gave a new impetus to emigration, and this third wave continu fait until the World War and the revolution of 1917. Although a large pr Lor portion of these political refugees was not ethnically Russian, these immate
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NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 107
ants, largely of the educated classes, possessed a common tradition and Anguage that gave them the designation of the "old Russian colony." thị Between 1920 and 1925, at the end of the civil war in Russia, thou- vitends of the members of the nobility and upper classes fled Russia. To- ther with some of the older Slavic immigrants, they formed what has io me to be known as the "new colony" as distinguished from the "old col- ichty" of pre-revolutionary immigrants. The new group, numbering about ainpoo, lives near Madison Avenue and 12Ist Street and along Broadway adom 135th Street to 157th Street. They are, of course, violently opposed to e present Russian government.
nd Four Russian dailies represent as many shades of political opinion, and anew York contains many Russian fraternal and cultural associations. Rus- in contributors to American arts and sciences include such outstanding an en in New York as Nicholas Roerich, Vladimir G. Simkhovich, Igor korsky, Serge Rachmaninoff and the Fokines.
In 1930 Russian white stock of all classes and racial origin living in New York numbered 945,072, or 18.6 percent of the total foreign white lebock in the city.
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Erainians
One of the most important groups of people from southern Russia and e eastern part of the former Austrian province of Galicia is made up Ukrainians, known also as Ruthenians or Little Russians. They are all atennically Slavs and most of them are of peasant origin. Of all Slavic lan- bages theirs is most akin to Russian. Those who come from Galicia be- sting to the Greek Catholic or Greek Uniate faith, those from the Russian 8kraine are Eastern Orthodox. About 80,000 Ukrainians, representing the updegest Slavic element, live in New York and publish a daily newspaper in ealeir language.
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reeks
se Large-scale Greek immigration began in the 1890's. A few of the thrivals before this time were Turkish subjects from Crete and the eregean Islands. In the II0 years up to 1930 421,489 Greeks entered the uenited States. New York has the largest Greek colony in the nation, with prgore than 25,000 of the total 174,526 foreign-born Greeks in the United amjates in 1930. Chicago is second with about 15,000.
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Most of the city's Greeks live in three main areas. The most populo is in the Thirties west of Sixth Avenue; the oldest is on Madison Strer between Catherine and Pearl; the third, largely residential, is on Secor Avenue in the Thirties. But one must not expect to find in any of the regions a distinctly Hellenic settlement; a few shops and restaurar. alone give evidence of the national origin of many of the inhabitant None of the more prominent Greek churches is located in these neighbo hoods. The new Greek residential section on Washington Heights cente around the church of St. Spyridon at Wadsworth Avenue and 179th Stre
Holy Trinity Orthodox Greek Church, built in 1904 and subsequent burned, was rebuilt at 31 East Seventy-Fourth Street as the cathedral the archdiocese of all Orthodox churches in North and South Americ On January 6, Epiphany Day, Greeks march in procession through ti streets, led by priests in their sumptuous robes, with ikons borne acolytes. The chief priest carries a cross to the water's edge at the Ba tery, and others cast the cross into the waves, blessing the sea; the crc is then rescued by a believer who plunges into the chill water and brin it to shore. March 25 marks the coincidence of the feast of the Annu ciation of the Virgin with the anniversary of Greek Independence Da when every Greek who can do so takes part in the joint celebration. C this occasion the Consul General usually attends the service at Hc Trinity.
New York has a Greek day school (Forest Avenue, Bronx, attached the Church of Zoodochos Peghe) and about 50 afternoon and evenif schools where some 2000 pupils are instructed in the Greek languag Two principal newspapers in Greek are published in New York, and the are several Greek book shops.
Although they are rarely worn in public, native Greek costumes m be purchased in the shops in the Greek quarters. Greek restaurants all kinds abound, but to enjoy the real native cuisine one must go those eating places in the Greek quarters patronized by Hellenes.
There are two Greek theatrical troupes which from time to time gi performances in the vernacular of plays by modern authors (consult t Greek newspapers Atlantis and Keryx for time and place). Greek pi grams are heard daily over the radio.
Best known of the Greek societies are the American-Hellenic Edud tional Progressive Association and the Greek-American Progressive Ass ciation. Philaptochos (Ladies Charity Organization), closely affiliat with the church, has 600 branches in the United States.
NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 109
Of all the businesses in which American Greeks are engaged, the sell- g of cut flowers is easily the first. There are many Greek importers and anufacturers of Turkish and Egyptian cigarettes. Not the least among ew York's business enterprises operated by Greeks are motion picture eaters, candy shops, lunch rooms and night clubs.
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New York's Little Rumania was one of the city's most interesting reign colonies during the great migration from the 1890's to the early oo's. Its restaurants were notable not only for their Rumanian delica- es but also for their clientele: bearded men with derby hats, shabbily essed wives and children, drinking the sour wines of the homeland ile listening to Rumanian ballads played by a tiny native orchestra.
Today New York's five or six hundred Rumanian gypsies in the lower st Side and other sections of Manhattan constitute the city's only sely-knit Rumanian colony. The 88,000 Rumanian Jews in New York n e scattered throughout the five boroughs. About 5,000 Rumanians from un Ba
Dat ansylvania and Bukovina are largely of the Eastern Orthodox faith and, e the Rumanian Jews, are scattered throughout the city. Most of these lol rship in a special chapel attached to St. Nicholas' Russian Orthodox thedral at 15 East Ninety-Seventh Street, Manhattan. The Rumanian ws usually worship in the synagogues nearest their homes, but there je two congregations which were founded during immigration days and ich still have a definite Rumanian stamp: the First Rumanian-Amer- n Congregation, 89 Rivington Street, Manhattan, and the First Brook-
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