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 em ...
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
Tap water (also known as faucet water, running water, or municipal water) is water supplied through a tap, a water dispenser valve. In many countries, tap water usually has the quality of drinking water. Tap water is commonly used for drinking, ...
, 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 ba ...
, 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)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/The_Tenement_Museum_%2851624759160%29.jpg)
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 listed ...
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 propertie ...
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
The Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence (RBA) was established in 1986 by Cambridge, Massachusetts architect Simeon Bruner. The award is named after Simeon Bruner's late father, Rudy Bruner, founder of the Bruner Foundation. According to the Bru ...
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 ca ...
. 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 usuall ...
apartments and shops open daily for public tours, depicting the lives of
immigrants
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
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 densely ...
. 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; a ...
refugee family, a
Puerto Rican migrant family, and a
Chinese immigrant 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
''The Old Law, or A New Way to Please You'' is a seventeenth-century tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, and Philip Massinger. It was first published in 1656, but is generally thought to have been written about four decades e ...
" 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.
See also
* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
New York City is home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites, many of which are internationally known. This list contains the most famous or well-regarded organizations, based on their mission.
Museums
Also included are non-prof ...
* Jane Ziegelman, the museum's culinary director and author of ''97 Orchard''
* Bialystoker Synagogue
The Bialystoker Synagogue at 7–11 Bialystoker Place, also known as Willett Street,Brawarsky, Sandee''The New York Times'' (January 19, 2001). Quote:"BIALYSTOKER SYNAGOGUE, landmark structure (built as Willett Street Church), 7–13 Willett Str ...
* '' A Stoop on Orchard Street'', a musical inspired by a visit to the museum
* Tenement House (Glasgow)
The Tenement House is a historic house museum in Glasgow, owned and operated by the National Trust for Scotland.
It is located at 145 Buccleuch Street, in the Garnethill area, near Charing Cross railway station and Cowcaddens subway station. The ...
, a similar museum in Scotland
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
External links
Lower East Side Tenement Museum
National Park Service: Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic Site
Tenement Building at 97 Orchard Street, National Historic Landmark summary
* and
Public Law No: 105-378
* ''Biography of a Tenement House in New York City: An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street'',
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Lower East Side
History of immigration to the United States
National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan
Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
National Historic Sites in New York (state)
Museums in Manhattan
Museums of human migration
Ethnic museums in New York City
Historic house museums in New York City
Progressive Era in the United States
1988 establishments in New York City
Museums established in 1988
Residential buildings completed in 1863