1929: Launching The German House

Frank Absher of the St. Louis Media History Foundation recently sent me a color postcard from the German House of September 1929. It served as an invitation to the dedication of the huge building that still sits at 2345 Lafayette Avenue. This was its very beginning. KMOX, on the air for four years by then, was on hand to live cast the event.  

Everyone gathered when groups mattered.

The place was the Northeast corner of Lafayette and Jefferson Avenues. By 1929, the high-flying Jeffla Hall had been in place across the street for 36 years. The Union Club business organization built Jeffla in 1893. The monster tornado three years later that obliterated the neighborhood and wrecked Jeffla Hall. The Union Club quickly rebuilt the establishment. With its 23 offices, 6 meeting halls and an auditorium that sat 3,000, it was a popular and proven venue.  

Germany made strides toward recovering its national pride in the decade following World War I. It made the world seem smaller with transportation developments in 1928, including the fast, sleek and huge SS Bremen transatlantic steamer and Graf Zeppelin transatlantic airship.

  Asserting their relevance in a new postwar world, the always strong German community in South St. Louis wanted a place to call its own.

Tying a community together in buildings

The Liederkranz singing society headquarters (at left) stood nearby at 13th and Chouteau Avenue. A turnverein (gymnasium/social center; at right, still standing) near Chouteau and Mississippi also anchored the German American society here. So developing a tract across from the Jeffla Club for a new community center made sense.

Nearly one hundred local artistic, athletic, labor and cultural German organizations pooled resources and clout to get the German House and German Theater constructed. The lot sold for $27,000. A ground breaking ceremony captured headlines in May 1928. (https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1928-1942-german-house-the-earliest-years/).  

Another $300,000 went toward construction of a three story structure based on  a portion of Heidelberg Castle. 

Those funds bought a first class structure that boasted a theater accommodating 3,000 people, an entertainment hall for another 450, a similarly sized dining hall, and ten social halls or clubrooms. The second floor held 16 large offices. Below decks, the basement contained a roomy rathskeller, cafe, and a dozen bowling lanes. 

Upon opening, the building was already 65% rented out, to Germanic societies, lodges, and trade and labor unions. 

A multi-day kickoff for the German House

A four day dedication extravaganza began September 7, 1929. It featured speakers including both German and Austrian consuls, representatives of both Missouri Governor and St. Louis Mayor, newspaper editors and many business and labor leaders. Choruses sang, the Saxonian society marched, a linden tree was planted for life, growth, and luck, and tableaux, or “living pictures” of early immigrants to Missouri were staged.

Dancing and singing followed hearty suppers each evening, led by songbird societies like the Liederkranz and Chouteau Valley Damenchor. 

  No-one could accuse German Americans of lack of effort. Lack of beer, maybe, as this was in the midst of prohibition, but thirsty Germans usually found their workarounds, and this was a celebration.

Settling down to its business

The German Theater found a home in the auditorium. It had hosted performances in St. Louis for 80 years by September of 1929. To ensure a bright future, the management acquired 103 plays from Germany, including comedies, farces, musicals, dramas and folk plays. Selections from these were given every Sunday, and a performance by a “highly literary character” was offered on the third Wednesday of each month. 

Nearly 100 German American groups met at the German House, in addition to dozens of labor unions and clubs dedicated to everything from photography to aviation. Over its life, it hosted radio broadcasts, symphony recordings, wrestling, bowling tournaments and religious revivals.

The third floor of the building was used for a large display of German language newspapers from around the world. At that time there were 36 German dailies in the US, and 200 weeklies published, some of which had been around for over 70 years. 

Anyway, big doings in St. Louis. This is all preliminary to the long multifaceted history of the German House. Its first hurdle lay just ahead, a month after dedication and all the hoopla, when the New York Stock Exchange collapsed on October 29, 1929.  

Few were then aware of how long and deep the drop would be, as a global depression settled in for the next decade. It was a hard world to be born into, but the German House somehow managed to stand through the years. It easily outlasted Jeffla Hall, which met the wrecking ball in 1955. 

If only someone with big dreams would swoop in and rescue this lovely and historic building. It would take less than a couple million. I read that our country is awash in cash with super low mortgage rates. Where have all the Germans gone?

Lafayette Square Archives has much more about the culturally and historically important German House. Check out the six part serial in the archives at lafayettesquarearchives.com