Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

New York City, New York

New York (pop 8,5 mln., 14 mln. with suburbs) is undeniably one of the centers of the world.

By the time it received its first 100-floor building in 1931 the tallest "skyscraper" of Lithuania stood at 8 floors. New York must have truly impressed the contemporary immigrants from agricultural Lithuania.

New York was the "entry gate" for the hundreds of thousands Lithuanians who immigrated to America before World War 1, some 15000 settling in NYC for good and others just passing by. Being the world's largest city in the era of 1930-1950 when the Lithuanian Soviet Genocide refugees immigrated, New York attracted a fair share of them as well. Unlike some other once-industrial US cities, New York continued to be important and its Lithuanian community constantly renews itself.

Among the New York Lithuanian sites are numerous memorials and memorial plaques, some of them symbolically created in key locations to mark the importance of Lithuanian-Americans. There were 5 Lithuanian churches, 2 of which survive and are very impressively decorated. Several key Lithuanian organization HQs are located in New York.

New York also played an important role in lives of numerous famous Lithuanians, giving birth to sites related to them. This includes the Transatlantic pilots Darius and Girėnas (who took off from New York for their famous flight), the writer Antanas Škėma (who wrote a semi-autobiographical work about a Lithuanian emigrant in New York that is now considered among the best Lithuanian books ever) and modern artists Jonas Mekas and Jurgis Mačiūnas (who developed their Fluxus art movement in New York).

Queens and its modern-ethnic church

Even before World War 1, Lithuanians had their churches in New York. The most unique among the New York‘s Lithuanian churches is Transfiguration church (64-14 Clinton Avenue). Although originally constructed 1908, it was twice rebuilt (once after a fire and, after WW2, due to expanding Lithuanian community). The current building dates to 1962. It is an attempt to create a modern-yet-ethnic Lithuanian style, something impossible in Soviet-occupied Lithuania at the time and only existing in the USA. It is sometimes considered a magnum opus of architect Jonas Mulokas and interior designer V. K. Jonynas who also collaborated on multiple Lithuanian American churches in the 1950s Illinois. For this church, Mulokas received a prize from the American Architects Union, while the "New York Times" (1962 12 02) recognized it among the New York's best architectural works of the year.

While the building uses modern materials (brick, metal, and glass instead of wood), as well as modern designs (e.g. the statue over the entrance), it has countless Lithuanian symbols in nearly everything. Firstly, the form of the church itself reminds the traditional Lithuanian barn and so does its rooftop. The church belfry is similar to Lithuanian traditional wooden chapel-posts in its form. It is crowned by a Lithuanian sun-cross which also incorporates a moon (a merging of Lithuanian Christian and pre-Christian beliefs). Nearly all the crosses inside the building are also such sun-crosses (including a massive one over the altar). Over the church entrance, Lithuanian words „Mano namai – maldos namai“ greets the visitors („My house – Prayer house“) and the Lithuanian flag is perennially waving together with the US one. A traditional chapel-post stands in the churchyard; it is dedicated to Lithuanians who died for faith and freedom)

Inside the church, Lithuanian ornaments are visible even on the lights, while every pew has a Cross of Vytis on its side. Of course, there are images of Lithuania-related saints and religious traditions, such as St. Casimir. There is also a Lithuanian flag. A memorial plaque to the long-term pastor Frank Bulovas is immediately beyond the entrance. By the way, a street near the church (Perry Av) has an honorary name of Monsignor Frank Bulovas Avenue.

The church is open every day for mass.

The building near the church houses the Lithuanian-American religious charity organization Lithuanian-Catholic religious aid. It distributes money donated by (mostly) Lithuanian-Americans to support Lithuanian religious activities; while Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, LCRA was instrumental in supporting the "Chronicle of Catholic Church", which was not a chronicle per-se but rather an independent clandestine form of media that documented human rights abuses suffered by Lithuanians during the occupation.

Brooklyn‘s Williamsburg, the former Lithuanian district

Williamsburg in Brooklyn was a Lithuanian district in the early 20th century. While most Lithuanian institutions there have since closed down, two church buildings and a Lithuania square remain.

Brooklyn Annunciation Lithuanian Roman Catholic church is the hub of the district. It is a century older than the Queens church (built 1863, 259 N. 5th Street, architect Francis Himpler). It has been constructed by Germans and acquired by a Lithuanian parish in 1914. The interior has been partly redecorated the Lithuanian way: Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis and Gate of Dawn altars created (moved in from the other closed Lithuanian churches, as Annunciation remained the liveliest Lithuanian church in New York). There is also a mural of Our Lady of Vilnius, surrounded by Lithuanian ethnic strip and coats of arms of Lithuania and Vilnius (located at the left side of the altar; created ~1972 in place of a former nun balcony), and St. Casimir praying to its image (right side, 1929). Lithuanians have also added the top part of the altar and the stained-glass windows around the altar (1929 renovation). These meticulous details, together with the older impressive German details (stained-glass windows of 1870, 1860s nave-side frescos by the Munich court painter Esthel, etc.), attract many architecture-loving visitors to the church and it regularly participates in the „Open House New York“ events.

The mass is held in Lithuanian and Spanish (as the neighborhood has a large Hispanic population).

Outside of the church, a Lithuanian sun-cross and a Lithuanian chapel-post were erected. The chapel-post has a Lithuanian inscription „Šv. Marija, saugok Lietuvą ir jos vaikus“ („Holy Mary, save Lithuania and its children“) and a Rūpintojėlis (traditional Lithuanian sad Jesus) figure on top. Such Lithuanian Christian carvings (with some pagan details) are UNESCO immaterial World heritage. A plaque exlplains this artistic tradition in English.

Previously, a convent of Lithuanian nuns was located near the church (until being sold in 1975), however, it has closed, just like the Lithuanian school where the nuns taught at (1972). The square in front of the church is, however, still named after a Lithuanian nun Nicodema.

The number of parishioners declined from ~4000 families to ~1000 families in 1990 and ~250 families today.

Brooklyn also had a St Mary of the Angels Lithuanian church (corner of 4th S St. and Roebling St.), closed 1981, now El Puente Academy devoid of any Lithuanian marks inside or outside. A simple neoclassical edifice it was famous for the stained glass windows by sculptor V. K. Jonynas it had, most of which were then moved to Our Lady of Vilnius church in Manhattan (see below).

In between of both churches is perhaps the last surviving Lithuanian sign in the area, „Bar Vasikauskas“ (the bar itself is long closed, however).

Another key Lithuanian feature of Williamsburg, between the 2nd street, Hewes Street, and Union Avenue, is the Lituanica square, also known as Lithuania square, a small patch of land with a monument and flagpole (1957). It is dedicated to pilots Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas who became the first Lithuanians to cross the Atlantic by air and the pioneers of Transatlantic air mail. Sadly their 1933 flight which departed from New York Floyd Bennett Field (in Brooklyn southwest of Williamsburg) ended up in a tragedy near their destination in Kaunas, making them martyrs of both Lithuania and Lithuanian-American community. The monument includes a plaque with Darius and Girėnas faces, their Lithuanian quote „Šį savo skridimą skiriame ir aukojame tau, jaunoji Lietuva“ („We dedicate and sacrifice this our flight to thee, young Lithuania“). The monument has been funded by New York Lithuanians. The building next to the plaza that has LACC letters inscribed on its corner also used to belong to Lithuanians (the letters meaning Lithuanian-American Citizens Club).

Lithuania, independent by then, sought to build a symbolic wing in that airport in 2013 (70th anniversary) but the airport administration denied this. The airport itself is no longer used (as it became far too small for the New York City). However, currently, it is more like a park where everyone can walk or drive the former runways, see the crumbling hangars and the terminal building, all of which were some of the last ground-level sites seen by Darius and Girėnas.

Another Lithuanian location in Brooklyn outside Williamsburg was the Cultural Heart (Kultūros židinys), a building constructed in 1974 to be a heart of New York Lithuanian activities. It was constructed within the Lithuanian Franciscan monastery. There, the monks together with lay Lithuanians cooperated in furthering both religious and secular Lithuanian goals and countering the Soviet propaganda. However, after 1990 independence, Lithuanian Franciscan leadership was able to relocate back to Lithuania and it decided to raise money by selling the expensive Brooklyn monastery, including the Lithuanian Cultural Heart. This led to an expensive court battle between the monks and the Lithuanians who had donated for the Cultural Heart expecting it to serve the Lithuanian cause for far longer than ~20 years it did. Eventually, an agreement was reached that the monastery and the Heart would be sold, however, a part of the proceeds would go to Lithuanian-American secular activities. In any case, nothing reminds the Lithuanian past of the former Franciscan monastery and the Cultural Heart today. It is a non-Lithuanian monastery now.

The dead Franciscans of the monastery, however, remained in Brooklyn and a had a nice Lithuanian Franciscan monument constructed for them in the Middle Village St. John Cemetery. On one side, all the Lithuanian Franciscan brothers are listed and both Lithuanian and English names of the order presented. On the other side, a short history of how Franciscans went first to Lithuania and then to Lithuanian-Americans. The memorial is covered by a sun-shaped symbol and ethnic patterns.

The demolished Lithuanian churches of New York

Unfortunately, some of the key Lithuanian locations in New York did not survive.

The most "infamous" Lithuanian church in New York is the gothic revival Our Lady of Vilnius (1910). This only Lithuanian church in Manhattan but it has been closed in 2007. The diocese plans to demolish it and sell the expensive land, triggering the largest Lithuanian-American protests since Lithuania became indpendent. The campaign included mass prayers, vigils, demonstrations attempting to save this "shard of Lithuania", among the last Our Lady of Vilnius churches of Lithuania. Even the Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus, himself a former Lithuanian-American, protested to the Pope against the church closure. However, all these were unsuccessful and the church was demolished.

At about the same time, New York's fifth Lithuanian church, the Renaissance Revival St. George's, has been destroyed and replaced by apartment blocks without much attention, likely because of its less glamorous Brooklyn location. Google Street View of 2007 has the only online image of it.

Lithuanian institutional HQs in Manhattan

New York is also the home to a major Lithuanian secular institution. The Lithuanian Alliance of America HQ (307 W. 30th Street) is its small but well-located heart. Now surrounded by skyscrapers, the historic 19th-century four-floored building recently had its exterior renovated to its former glory. It was also listed in National Register of Historic Places, becoming one of very few Lithuanian buildings to become federally recognized heritage. A plaque now commemorates this inscription.

The Lithuanian Alliance was the largest pre-war Lithuanian-American organization. It was founded in 1886 by the Lithuanian-American nationalists and leftists who dissented against the central role the Catholic church and its parishes played in many Lithuanian-American activities. Lithuanian Alliance has also served as a life insurance company for Lithuanians. Its membership has declined over the time since World War 2, however, as the new generations of Lithuanians were less likely to join. It went down from 11948 in 1955 to just 2446 in 2007 and merely several hundred today. The Alliance has abandoned its no-longer-lucrative insurance business to become a non-profit. The insurance business, once the major one, was severely hit by the Roosevelt's New Deal which made it mandatory for the employers to insure the employees (immigrants thus no longer needed the ethnic incurances, although these survived many decades afterwards due to people being used to them).

In its basement, the Alliance HQ has a massive archive documenting as the former insurance business made it collect more information on its members than usual. Possibly useful for genealogy research, the archive is not fully digitized so far. The second floor has offices with some authentic interwar furniture (you may be allowed to visit if asked during working hours) and "Tautos fondas" Lithuanian charitable foundation, while the top floors have apartments that are rented out making the main profit for the Alliance today. The building also has a small yard which became a hub for New York Lithuanian festivities such as Joninės (midsummer festival) or the July 6th National Day.

Lithuanian Alliance publishes the oldest Lithuanian newspaper ("Tėvynė", since 1896), albeit currently the publishing dates are scarce and the printing is done outside the building. Sla 307 gallery is located on the ground floor of the building, celebrating Lithuanian art. It has regular working hours but you need to ring a bell.

New York is also a political center. It is the location of United Nations HQ and thus the Lithuanian representative office to the UN (the Lithuanian flag, together with all the world's flags, regularly waves near the UN HQ). It also has a consulate-general. Both of those work on rental premises, however, and have no permanent Lithuanian details.

Manhattan Lithuanian memorials

In addition to the Brooklyn memorials for pilots Darius and Girėnas, there are many Lithuanian memorials in the key sites of Manhattan as well.

On a building next to the New York stock market in Broad Street (Manhattan), there was a commemorative plaque for the first famous Lithuanian-American Aleksandras Karolis Kuršius (better known in Latin as Alexander Carolus Cursius-Curtius). This nobleman established the NYC's first Latin school on the location (at the time New York was still a Dutch colony known as New Amsterdam). The plaque for him was created in 1976 for the US 200th anniversary and has been a part of a Lithuanian American struggle to widen the knowledge of the name "Lithuania" and its Soviet occupation. Sadly, the plaque has been removed in 2018.

Before the massive immigration from Eastern Europe began in the late 19th century such isolated noblemen were the only Lithuanians to set foot on New York shore. One of them - Tadeusz Kosciuszko (Lithuanian: Tadas Kosciuška) - fought for US freedom before unsuccessfully attempting to defend his homeland Poland-Lithuania (united at the time) from European great powers. A commemorative plaque for him has been jointly funded by Lithuanian and Polish Americans in 1997. There are other sites named after him in New York, however, the other sites have no relation to Lithuanians.

Another Lithuania-related memorial plaque is on the floor of the New York Library at 476 5th Ave. It cites Martin Radtke, an immigrant from Lithuania, who had a few opportunities for formal education and so educated himself in the library, amassing a fortune he then bequeathed to the library. There is next to none information available about him online, however, save for the plaque. "Radtke" surname was, however, somewhat common among Lithuania's Germans, so it is likely Martin Radtke hailed from that community. It is possible that "Radtke" is a Germanized version of a Lithuanian surname Ratkevičius (Germanization of Lithuanian surnames was common in the German-ruled parts of Lithuania).

The first leader of both Poland and Lithuania, ethnic Lithuanian King Jogaila lived at the time America was not even discovered by the Europeans (1348-1434). However, New York Central Park includes a massive Jogaila statue, created by S. Ostrowski. It is one of the most impressive Lithuania-related sites in New York. Symbolically, it is a copy of a sculpture in Warsaw (Poland) that had been destroyed to make WW1 bullets. The Central Park sculpture was made to decorate Polish pavilion in 1939 New York Expo but while that Expo was still ongoing Poland itself was invaded and occupied by Soviet Russians and Nazi Germans. The property of Polish pavilion has then been transferred to the Polish museum but a joint request of New York mayor and Polish consul made it a gift to New York City. As the sculpture has been built by Poles the Polonized version of king's name is used (Jagiello) and the word "Poland" inscribed. However, the description of the king includes Lithuania, and the coat of Jogaila is covered in both Polish and Lithuanian coats of arms.

Anatanas Škėma and Lithuanian artists related sites

New York lacks a Lithuanian cemetery, however, the massive private Cypress Hills cemetery includes many Lithuanian graves, such as that of painter Adomas Galdikas. Arguably the most famous among those graves is the Grave of Antanas Škėma, one of the most famous Lithuanian writers. His semi-autobiographical existentialist magnum opus "White Shroud" described the toil and thoughts of an underemployed Lithuanian Soviet-Genocide-refugee in New York, who had to work in an elevator of a prestigious hotel despite being qualified to a white-collar work.

Antanas Škėma is claimed to have worked in the elevator himself at the Roosevelt Hotel in central Manhattan. Sadly, the hotel was closed for good during the COVID pandemic.

It is often claimed that Antanas Škėma would be considered among the world's top 20th century writers had he written his work in English, as he effectively debuted existentialism. However, with his work in Lithuanian and accessible only to Lithuanian-Americans (having been effectively banned in the Soviet-held Lithuania), he had very limited readers. He was discovered in Lithuania after 1990 independence (and added to school literature programs there) but is yet-to-be-discovered in America (even many Lithuanian-Americans of today do not know him). Only in 2010s was his "White Shroud" translated into English for the first time.

Other famous Lithuanian-American artists who developed their careers in New York are the FLUXUS artists Jonas Mekas and Jurgis (George) Mačiūnas. Anthology Film Archives is a cinema established by Jonas Mekas which doubles as a repository for independent films.

There is also a Commemorative plaque of Jurgis Mačiūnas on the building in SoHo where he had his artist's community in 1967-1969 (16-18 Greene Street). At that time, this was a cheap district for cheap space yet today (thanks to the artist-led gentrification) it is among the more expensive places in Manhattan and any artist community here would now be unlikely.

Ellis Island and immigrant memory sites

Not just for the Lithuanians, but for most immigrant ethnicities Ellis Island is important as a point through where 12 million immigrants came to the USA in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among them hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians. The massive halls of the facility now host the US largest museum of immigration.

Still, Lithuanians were among the smaller immigrant groups (compared to the Poles, Italians, Germans, Jews...), so, relatively little is available particularly on them in the Ellis Island. But the place is great for learning the experience many Lithuanian migrants had, epitomised in a local quote from an immigrant from Lithuania that basically says that emigration was similar to death in that you wouldn't ever see even your parents anymore.

A rather new attraction in Ellis Island is the now-abandoned Ellis Island hospital which may be visited on tours. There, those who could be cured would be allowed to immigrate but those who couldn‘t be deported. At the time, health was almost the only one criteria which decided who would be allowed to immigrate to the USA, and the experience of Ellis Island hospital was universal for immigrants of all ethnicities, Lithuanians included. As the deportation of the unhealthy often meant separating families, Ellis Island was also known as the Island of Tears.

Visiting Ellis Island is possible using the Liberty Island ferries everyday. The visit is easily combinable with the visit to Liberty Island.

In Ellis Island, one may understand the initial moments of how immigrants saw New York skyline and America, and how their first days there went by. On the other hand, in Manhattan's Tenement Museum it is possible to see how those lives continued in America, at least for the minority of the immigrants who stayed in New York City. The museum is established in an authentic 19th-century tenement block. The building has survived unmodified because it had been abandoned before World War 2. It has been reopened now as a museum with authentic public areas and restored apartments. Each of the newly-restored apartments is dedicated to some family that lived in the building and aims to recreate a particular moment of history. One of the restored apartments is dedicated to Rogarshevskys, a Jewish family that had immigrated from Lithuania. Lithuania is mentioned although not accentuated in the exhibit. However, the experience of immigrants of many Eastern European ethnicities at the time was essentially similar, as people were fleeing poverty and persecutions back home and moved to rather uniform tenement blocks of New York. From today's standpoint, life in these tenements may not seem to have been especially affluent either. However, compared to their homelands at the time, the tenement is somewhat elaborate, includes artistic interiors and nice finishing touches. The museum could be visited only with tours; each tour includes two apartments and lasts ~1 hour.

New York consists of five massive boroughs. Queens has ~6000 Lithuanians, Manhattan ~5000, Brooklyn ~3000, Bronx ~500, Staten Island ~750.

Lithuanian sites in Long Island

Since at least the early 20th century, Long Island has been the abode of the New York's rich. Some of them have hired Lithuanians as servants, giving the beginnings for Long Island's Lithuanian community, centered at Great Neck. The community would swell as people would tell their friends about job opportunities in the mansions. As the time went on, this community was joined by Soviet Genocide refugees (1940s), in many cases relatives of the earlier migrants. There were also Lithuanians who moved in from New York City and post-1990 immigrants.

That said, the Long Island Lithuanian community was never large or cohesive enough to build any buildings (churches or clubs) on its own. Instead, they relied on events in open spaces and multiethnic churches. The new immigrants typically merely replaced the older ones who moved out or assimilated rather than expanding the community.

Lithuanian heritage sites are therefore limited in Long Island but they include Wesey Ct street (actually named after a Lithuanian with a surname Vasiliauskas, who Americanized it to Wesey; the street was layed in his grounds) and the grave of tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis, the most famous Lithuanian who lived in Long Island.

 

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The map

All the Lithuanian locations, described in this article, are marked on this interactive map, made by the "Destination - America" expedition (click the link):

Interactive map of New York Lithuanian sites