The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, located at 97 and 103

Orchard Street Orchard Street is a street in Manhattan which covers the eight city blocks between Division Street in Chinatown and East Houston Street on the Lower East Side. Vehicular traffic runs north on this one-way street. Orchard Street starts from ...

in the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, is a National Historic Site. The museum's two historical

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

buildings were home to an estimated 15,000 people, from over 20 nations, between 1863 and 2011. The museum, which includes a visitors' center, promotes tolerance and historical perspective on the immigrant experience.

History

The building at 97 Orchard Street was contracted by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

n-born immigrant Lukas Glockner in 1863 and was modified several times to conform with the city's developing housing laws. When first constructed, it contained 22 apartments and a basement level saloon. Over time, four stoop-level and two basement apartments were converted into commercial retail space, leaving 16 apartments in the building. Modifications over the years included the installation of indoor plumbing (cold running water, two toilets per floor), an air shaft, and gas followed by electricity. In 1935, rather than continuing to modify the building, the landlord evicted the residents, boarded the upper windows, and sealed the upper floors, leaving only the stoop-level and basement storefronts open for business. No further changes were made until the Lower East Side Tenement Museum became involved with the building in 1988. As such, the building stands as a kind of

time capsule A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy relics dates ...

, reflecting 19th and early 20th century living conditions and the changing notions of what constitutes acceptable housing. In spite of the restoration, some parts of the upper floors are unstable and remain closed. The Tenement Museum (51624759160)

The Tenement Museum was founded in 1988 by Ruth J. Abram and Anita Jacobson. The museum's first key property, the tenement at 97 Orchard Street, was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

on April 19, 1994. The National Historic Site was authorized on November 12, 1998. It is an affiliated area of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

but is owned and administered by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The site received a

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Trust fo ...

matching grant for $250,000 in 2000 for preservation work. In 2001 the museum was awarded the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence silver medal. In 2005, the museum was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a c ...

. The National Defense Authorization Act for the 2015 fiscal year expanded the National Historic Site designation to also include the tenement at 103 Orchard Street. The Tenement Museum attracted some negative press in 2007 related to its employees seeking union membership as well as for its planned acquisition of the building at 99 Orchard Street through

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

in 2002. The current president of the museum is Dr. Annie Polland, who took over the role from Dr. Morris Vogel in 2021.

Exhibits, collections, and programs

The museum's exhibits and programs include restored

period room A period room is a display that represents the interior design and decorative art of a particular historical social setting usually in a museum. Though it may incorporate elements of an individual real room that once existed somewhere, it is usually ...

apartments and shops open daily for public tours, depicting the lives of immigrants who lived at 97 Orchard Street between 1869 and 1935 and 103 Orchard Street from the 1950s to the 1980s. The museum also provides a documentary film and offers tours with costumed interpreters for portraying the building's former residents, tastings of their communities' typical foods, and neighborhood walks. The museum's tours place the immigrants' lives in the broader context of

American history The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densel ...

. The museum also has an extensive collection of historical archives and provides a variety of educational programs. An exhibition titled "Under One Roof" opened in December 2017. Located at 103 Orchard Street, above the Visitor's Center, the exhibition explores the lives of a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

refugee family, a Puerto Rican migrant family, and a

Chinese immigrant Waves of Chinese emigration have happened throughout history. They include the emigration to Southeast Asia beginning from the 10th century during the Tang Dynasty, to the Americas during the 19th century, particularly during the California g ...

family. In the spring of 2021, the Tenement Museum added “Reclaiming Black Spaces” to their list of available walking and virtual tours, educating visitors on Black experiences in the Lower East Side. This was inspired by a discovery in the museum's collection regarding two men named Joseph Moore. These men were both residents of NYC, were about the same age, and worked in the same profession. Their biggest difference was one was a white Irishman and lived in the museum's location at 97 Orchard Street, and the other was a Black man who lived in a nearby tenement house. The museum has recreated the kitchen of the Irish Joseph Moore, and they plan to open an apartment recreating the home of Joseph Moore and his family in 2022. This will be the first permanent apartment exhibit by the museum representing the Black experience.

The Tenement House Act

There were many Tenement House Acts during the 1800s and 1900s. However, there were three particular Acts that changed the living conditions in housing today. Those three Tenement House Acts were: The Tenement House Act of 1867, The Tenement House Act of 1879, and The Tenement House Act of 1901 which is part of the New York State Tenement House Act. The first tenement house act was called The Tenement House Act of 1867, also known as "the Old Law". It was the country's first comprehensive housing reform law. The law required buildings to have fire escapes and at least one toilet for every 20 tenants and to be connected to the city sewers if possible. However, many people (tenement owners) did not follow the law, so it had little effect. Then came the second Tenement House Act which was called The Tenement House Act of 1879, also known as " the Old Law" and was followed by the 1867 law. Many buildings were outlawing the construction of buildings like 97 Orchard Street that had interior rooms without windows. The 1879 law required all rooms to be open onto the street, the rear yard, or an air shaft, for the tenant to escape the building in an emergency. This led owners to the development of the "dumbbell" tenement plan. Then came the third Tenement House Act which was called The Tenement House Act of 1901, also known as "The New Law." The government noticed that many of the tenement buildings were extremely dangerous and unlivable. The 1901 law required buildings to include running water, gas, light, and ventilation. The Dumb-bell tenement plan was outlawed. Since the previous Tenement House Act had not helped change the housing conditions, the law allowed the Tenement House Department to inspect these buildings and enforce the new regulations.

In popular culture

Lower East Side Tenement Museum has been featured as a landmark in several films, including ''

Crossing Delancey ''Crossing Delancey'' is a 1988 American romantic comedy film starring Amy Irving and Peter Riegert. Joan Micklin Silver directed it, drawing upon a play by Susan Sandler, who also wrote the screenplay. The film also features performances fro ...

'' (1988) and ''

The Definition of Insanity (film) ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (2004), where the museum was used as setting for the interior hospital sequences.“IMDb: The Definition of Insanity": Locations”
/ref> It also made a brief appearance in the Netflix original series “Dash & Lilly” (2020), where it is the exterior backdrop while Lily skips down the street at the beginning of Episode 2, Season 1.

References

Notes Bibliography *

External links