TUCKED away on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village is a reminder that it used to be NYC’s foremost German neighborhood. The German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse (Deutsch-Amerikanische Schuetzen Gesselschaft), at 12 St. Mark’s Place, dates back to 1888-89. This yellow brick clubhouse, designed by William C. Frohne, served as headquarters for 24 companies who offered offsite facilities for target practice to the immigrant community. In the basement were a shooting gallery and a bowling alley. The street level housed a saloon, a large meeting room and a restaurant. The rest of the building was reserved for lodge rooms and an apartment for the caretaker on the fourth floor. The lodge rooms were rented to a variety of union groups over the decades.
The building is a bit worse for wear and currently divided into apartments; note the German inscription and date of construction above the entrance.
A rare example of the German Renaissance style in New York Particularly noteworthy is the arched panel at the center of the fourth story, depicting a target and crossed rifles above an eagle with outstretched wings. The German inscription says “Unity Makes Strength.”
In the late 1800s and very early 1900s, German immigrants settled in the East Village between 3rd Avenue and the river, from Houston north to East 14th. After the General Slocum steamboat disaster, which killed over 1000 people, Kleindeutschland relocated uptown to what became Yorkville in the East 80s, which at the time was the hinterlands.
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4/24/25