Scheffel Hall at 190 Third Avenue

Third Avenue (Manhattan)

Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from Cooper Square north for over 120 blocks. Third Avenue continues into The Bronx across the Harlem River over the Third Avenue Bridge north of East 129th Street to East Fordham Road at...

 in the Gramercy Park

Gramercy Park

Gramercy Park is a small, fenced-in private park in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park is at the core of both the neighborhood referred to as either Gramercy or Gramercy Park and the Gramercy Park Historic District...

 neighborhood of Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, was built in 1894-1895, and designed by Henry Adams Weber and Hubert Drosser, at a time when the area south of it was known as Kleindeutschland

Little Germany, New York

Little Germany, known in German as Kleindeutschland and Deutschländle and called Dutchtown by contemporary non-Germans, was a German immigrant neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City...

 ("Little Germany") due to the large number of German immigrants who lived nearby. The building, which served as a beer hall and restaurant, was modeled after an early-17th century building in Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg Castle

The Heidelberg Castle is a famous ruin in Germany and landmark of Heidelberg. The castle ruins are among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps....

, the "Friedrichsbau", and was named after Joseph Viktor von Scheffel

Joseph Viktor von Scheffel

Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist.-Biography:He was born at Karlsruhe. His father, a retired major in the Baden army, was a civil engineer and member of the commission for regulating the course of the Rhine; his mother, née Josephine Krederer, the daughter of a prosperous...

, a German poet and novelist. It later became known as Allaire's, a name still inscribed on the building. The building's style has been described as "German-American eclectic Renaissance Revival".

Later, in the late 1920's, the building was used by the German-American Athletic Club. By 1939 it became the German-Aerican Rathskeller, and then Joe King's Rathskeller. O. Henry

O. Henry

O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...

 referred to the Rathskeller as Rheinschlossen ("Rhine Castles") and wrote some of his stories there. Beginning in the 1970s, it was the home of Fat Tuesday's, a well-known jazz club

Jazz club

A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music. Jazz clubs have been in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz and when its popularity as a dance music was common...

, and Tuesday's restaurant, which lasted until the early 21st century. It is currently a movement studio.

Scheffel Hall was designated a New York City landmark in 1997.