1.Oak Point and North Brother
Island study
(a)This Act may be cited as the General Slocum Memorial Study
Act
.
(b)Congress
finds as follows:
(1)The Area would
commemorate the June 15, 1904, catastrophic fire aboard the General Slocum
steamship, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 people, most of them
German immigrants and their children.
(2)At the time of
this tragedy, there was a vibrant German neighborhood, known as
Kleindeutschland
or Little Germany
, located on
the Lower East Side in New York City.
(3)Among the churches
in Kleindeutschland, St. Mark’s Lutheran Evangelical Church on East 6th Street,
held an annual outing to celebrate the end of the Sunday school year for
neighborhood children and their families. On June 15, 1904, more than 1,300
people boarded the General Slocum for the annual excursion which was a trip to
Locust Grove on Long Island Sound.
(4)Nearly everyone in
the neighborhood knew someone who died in the ensuing fire or who perished in
the treacherous waters of the East River near Hell Gate. Many lost their entire
families. While most passengers were German, victims and rescuers also included
African-Americans, and Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrants.
(5)The Slocum tragedy
also resulted in the devastation of a lively, bustling, and prosperous lower
East Side community. Kleindeutschland disappeared forever as its residents fled
the reminders of their great losses. Germans left in record numbers and were
soon replaced by a new wave of immigrants. The 1910 census showed only a few
German families remained in Kleindeutschland.
(6)In the wake of the
Slocum disaster, maritime safety standards were considerably tightened—one of
the doomed ship’s legacies.
(7)The study area
marks the location where the greatest loss of life occurred in this, the most
deadly peacetime maritime disaster in American history. North Brother Island is
where the General Slocum beached and Oak Point is where rescuers assembled and
hundreds of bodies were brought ashore.
(c)In
this Act:
(1)The
term Area means in Bronx County, New York, the shoreline of the
area roughly bounded by 149th Street on the west and Oak Point Rail Yard spurs
on the east. It also includes North Brother Island.
(2)The
term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior, acting through
the Director of the National Park Service.
(d)
(1)The Secretary shall conduct a study of the Area to
evaluate the national significance of the Area and suitability and feasibility
of designating the Area as a unit of the National Park System.
(2)In
conducting the study required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall use the
criteria for the study of areas for potential inclusion in the National Park
System in section 8(c) of Public Law 91–383 (16 U.S.C. 1a–5(c)).
(3)The
study required by paragraph (1) shall—
(A)determine the
suitability and feasibility of designating the Area as a unit of the National
Park System;
(B)include cost
estimates for any necessary acquisition, development, operation, and
maintenance of the Area; and
(C)identify
alternatives for the management, administration, and protection of the
Area.
(e)Section
8(c) of Public Law 91–383 (16 U.S.C. 1a–5(c)) shall apply to the conduct of the
study required by this section, except that the study shall be submitted to the
Committee on Resources of the House of Representatives and the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate not later than 18 months after the
date on which funds are first made available for the study.