Often overshadowed by the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the General Slocum steamboat disaster on June 15, 1904, was nonetheless the deadliest New York City disaster prior to September 11, 2001. The official number of deceased was 1021 people: mostly women and children. The legacy of this disaster not only includes the tremendous loss of life but the reshaping of an entire New York City neighborhood, Kleindeutschland. Already losing community members to Yorkville and the outer boroughs by the turn of the 20th century, the Slocum disaster accelerated the exodus of Germans from Little Germany and ushered in the more diverse immigrant communities that settled on the Lower East Side.

6th Street Synagogue ca. 1970 Now known as the Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center, it was previously the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark. This highly‐intact Renaissance Revival‐style building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building has several periods of cultural significance: 1847, when it was constructed as the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew for Dutch, German and English Lutherans; 1857, when it became home to the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark, established to serve the East Village’s burgeoning German‐American community; 1904, when nearly 1,000 of its congregants were lost in the General Slocum Ferry disaster, one of the most devastating tragedies in New York City history; and 1940, when the church was converted to a synagogue, reflecting the neighborhood’s transition to the world’s largest Jewish community. Significantly, the building has not only directly served Germans and Jews, but also played a pivotal role in the transformation of the neighborhood from Kleindeutschland to the Jewish Lower East Side. The General Slocum disaster was regarded as the worst in naval history until the Titanic, and the worst in New York City history until September 11th. As its victims were nearly all women and children, among the major social impacts of the disaster was the migration of the remaining residents to outlying neighborhoods, like the Upper East Side. With the fleeing of the German population, a Jewish Lower East Side emerged. The Community Synagogue was quite literally at the center of this transition. Architecturally, the design is a unique example of the use of the Renaissance Revival style on an ecclesiastical building; in 1847, the style was more commonly used for commercial and residential structures. The use of the style lent this modestly‐scaled church an air of nobility and stature that is still evident today, as the building is virtually unchanged since the time of its construction in the mid-19th century. The Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center is the first and only building ever to occupy this East Village lot. It is the earliest of all the buildings on this architecturally diverse and intact historic block, of which GVSHP and our allies in 2012 secured historic district (landmark) status, securing our 2010 goal of landmark status for not just this building but approximately 325 surrounding buildings. The building’s distinctive architectural style, its direct connection to two of the East Village’s most influential immigrant groups – Germans and Jews – and its role in the General Slocum disaster all made this vital East Village structure an obvious candidate for protection.

In its history, New York City has seen its fair share of accidents, disasters, and catastrophes. Some have been man-made, while others were the work of Mother Nature. These events have, over time, altered and shaped the city and its citizens.

The East Village has long been a richly diverse immigrant neighborhood. It has also served as a hub for cultural movements: the Beats, punk rock, bohemians, Hare-Krishna…the list goes on. Take a walk through the area that was considered the center of counterculture in New York.

323-327 East 6th Street Building Date : 1847 Original Use : Religious Institution Original Owner : German St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church Original Architect : Unknown Description & Building Alterations This one-story Greek Revival-style church was erected in 1847 by the German St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Ten years later the building became St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The church was originally constructed in response to the growing German population in the downtown area in the 19th century. Today, it is one of the earliest Renaissance Revival churches in New York. It features an entrance enframement with a denticulated pediment, a pressed-metal cornice, molded window lintels and sills, and engaged pilasters flanking the building. In June of 1904, the church organized a picnic for 1,300 people, mostly wives and children of German immigrant workingmen. The picnickers boarded the excursion steamer the General Slocum, and the boat departed from the East Third Street pier. As the boat moved up the river to the Long Island North Shore, a fire started in the lamp room below the main deck, setting the boat on fire and killing nearly everyone on it. The building was transferred to its current owner, the Community Synagogue Center, an Orthodox congregation formed by a group led by business leader Saul Birns, in 1940. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Place

Community Synagogue Center, ca. 1970-1990. The Renaissance Revival style church on Sixth Street was originally built in 1847 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Matthew. A few members of the St. Matthew's congregation organized a new church called Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark, which rented space in this building for a number of years. In 1858 St. Mark's had secured the funds to purchased the church for themselves. In 1904, while on a summer time outing more than 1000 members of the congregation were killed when the General Slocum steamboat caught fire. On its way to a picnic area on Long Island, the boat caught fire as it passed 90th Street and was about to enter the choppy water of the Hell Gate near Astoria. The fire quickly grew, fueled by straw, oily rags, and lamp oil. The captain was not notified until more than 10 minutes after the fire was discovered. And while he had the opportunity to run the ship aground, he chose to continue upriver which fanned the already out of control flames. The safety equipment on board, including fire hoses, safety vests and boats, were mostly useless. Many passengers attempted to jump overboard, but drowned in the choppy water, as they did not known how to swim or were hampered by heavy clothing. Though the church would remain functioning for the next few decades, the congregation was devastated. Those who survived left the area downtown known as Kleindeutschland (“Little Germany”) and moved uptown to Yorkville. In 1946 St, Mark's officially merged with and moved uptown to the Zion Church on the Upper East Side. In 1940 the church building became an Orthodox synagogue called the Community Synagogue Center. In the early 1980s the synagogue took on the activities of the East Side Hebrew Institute, and the building has since been called Community Synagogue Max D. Raiskin Center.

Beginning in the mid 19th century, Germans began steadily immigrating to the United States of America. By 1855, New York City had the third-highest population of Germans of any city in the world. As with many recent immigrants, New York's Germans banded together to form a neighborhood called Kleindeutschland or little Germany.