German Winter Garden, Bowery

Interior of the German Winter Garden, 45 Bowery, New York City (Innere Ansicht des Deutschen Volks Winter Gartens). Watercolor by Fritz Meyer, dated October 1856. Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Illustration shows the interior of the old German Winter Garden (also known as Volk's Garden, duly licensed as a theatre), a large entertainment center, oval in shape, that stood at 45 Bowery, designed by architect Henry Hoffmann. The large open center was lit from above by glass skylights and surrounded by an arcade of slender columns, with a balcony around the second floor. New York's beer gardens were built to accommodate German immigrants, with families and children gathering there on Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings to eat, socialize, sing and drink beer. Beer gardens were found in German neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey City and Hoboken, some large enough to hold one thousand visitors.

In 1864, it was replaced by the Stadt Theatre.