New Yorker Allgemeiner Saengerbund Festival

“In addition to the Saengerbund societies, numbering fourteen, The New-York Turnverein, The Social Reform Gesang Verein, the German Quartet Club, and other organizations, will participate in the festivities. Early in the morning a procession will be formed at the Germania Assembly Rooms, under the direction of the Fest Marshall, Major Sauer. The procession will pass down the Bowery and through Stanton, Forsyth, and Houston streets, Avenue A, Seventh-street, Avenue B, and Eighth-street, and embark at the foot of the latter for Jones’ Wood.”

Promenade band concert, 1:30-3 pm, followed by dancing until midnight. “The band scarcely took fifteen minutes’ respite, except at 4 and 8 o’clock, when one or two of the Saengerbund Societies sang a few choruses in the open air. It must not be understood that the festivities were enjoyed by Germans alone. On the contrary, toward dusk the Irish and New-York youths brought their sweethearts, and, paying their quarters, were admitted to all the privileges of the grounds. This charge was made to all alike, to help pay the expenses of the place, which the Allgemeine Saengerbund had hired for the occasion.”