Atlantic Garden
The Atlantic Garden was a popular beer garden in New York that existed from 1858 to 1911.
history
The German immigrant William Kramer opened the Atlantic Garden in 1858 in a large hall on the Bowery , an access road to the then settlement center of Manhattan further south. A large number of Germans lived east of the Bowery and brought the Atlantic Garden and other beer gardens nearby to a large number of people. Newspapers reported that on Sundays Germans flocked to the beer gardens with their children and their knees to drink beer, meet friends, play cards, listen to music and dance.
One event that was enthusiastically celebrated in the Atlantic Garden was the surrender of France after the Battle of Sedan in 1870.
In 1911 the Atlantic Garden was demolished to make way for a modern theater and office building with eight floors.
In 2014, during excavation work for a new 22-storey hotel building, numerous remains of the Atlantic Garden were found, such as broken pieces from plates, jugs and bottles. The words "Bürgerspital Würzburg" could still be read on some bottles. The pieces found are to be exhibited in the new hotel.
location
The Atlantic Garden was at Bowery 50 in Lower Manhattan , now in the middle of Chinatown . This is where the driveway to Manhattan Bridge begins , opened in 1909. The building that housed the Atlantic Garden stretched from the Bowery to Elizabeth Street, which ran parallel to it, roughly halfway between Canal Street and Bayard Street. There were other beer gardens in the area; the Bowery Theater, built in 1826, was right next to the Atlantic Garden.
The Bull's Head Tavern, where George Washington stopped for a short rest in 1783, before moving to what was then New York on the southern tip of Manhattan after the withdrawal of the British troops , had previously been in the same location . During the excavations in 2014, remains of the Bull's Head Tavern were also found.
The building
The great hall - 100 feet wide and 200 feet deep (about 30 by 60 meters) - had a domed roof with sections of glass that let in daylight. Large chandeliers provided light in the evening. There were galleries at both ends of the hall . The rear gallery served as a restaurant, the front, like the rest of the hall, was reserved for beer consumption. There was a shooting range under the front gallery, as well as pool tables and a bowling alley.
In the front area of the hall, which was a bar on the right side of the hall there was a large Welte - calliope and a stage for musicians. The hall was furnished with tables and chairs. The Atlantic Garden held 1000 to 1500 visitors at the same time.
Web links
- Kleindeutschland and the Lower East Side, Manhattan - Beer Gardens on the website of Maggie Land Blanck
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Curious find in New York: It was O'zapft in old Chinatown . Spiegel Online, May 12, 2014
- ↑ a b c d e Maggie Land Blanck, see web links
- ↑ a b End of Atlantic Garden. The New York Times, August 8, 1911. Appendix to James Barron: Unearthed: A Possible Stop Along the Revolution . The New York Times, October 14, 2013
- ↑ James Barron: Unearthed: A Possible Stop Along the Revolution . The New York Times, October 14, 2013