When many immigrants arrived in New York City, often their only housing options were rundown, low-rent apartments in tenement buildings. These crowded living accommodations were common in the 1800s and 1900s before landlords were bound by law to provide decent living conditions. Some of these original tenements still stand today. The Tenement Museum in Manhattan's Lower East Side has preserved the structure at 97 Orchard Street and offers guided tours of this historic tenement building.
This tour focuses on the Confino family -- Sephardi Jews who immigrated from Greece to New York City in the early 1900s. The tour lasts one hour and takes place on the first floor of 97 Orchard Street -- a five-story building intended to house four families per floor. Tour participants are permitted to handle household items and interact with a costumed guide who portrays the teen-aged Victoria Confino, a 1916 resident of the tenement.
This one-hour, guided tour covers two three-room tenement apartments located on the second floor. "Getting By" focuses on the lives and lifestyle of the Gumpertz family -- German Jews -- and the Italian-Catholic Baldizzi family. The families' living quarters have been completely restored and show life as it was in the era from 1863 to 1935 when the tenants were evicted and the building was closed.
On the third floor of 97 Orchard Street, participants learn about life in the garment industry of New York City, in which many immigrants worked. During the one-hour exploration, visitors will see the garment workshop of the Levine family from Plonsk, Poland, and the Sabbath table of the Rogarshevsky family from Telz, Lithuania. In the Levine's kitchen, tourists will see socks hung to dry on a line, working kerosene lamps, a washboard in the sink and dirty walls that reveal the living conditions of the tenement apartment.
The Moore Family Tour covers the fourth floor of the building. Two families are highlighted on this tour -- the Moore family, which lived there in 1869, and the Katz family, Russian Jews that lived in the building till the 1930s. Neither family had showers, toilets or running water despite the fact that the Katz family lived there for over 60 years after the Moores.
Two walking tours of the Lower East Side neighborhood are offered by the Tenement Museum -- the 90-minute "Immigrant Soles" tour and the two-hour "Next Steps" tour. These tours do not include any interiors, but they do emphasize the immigrants' daily life in the neighborhood. Some points of interest include P.S. 42 where the children of 97 Orchard Street attended school; a neighborhood movie theater; the Eldridge Street Synagogue; the Essex Street Market where residents shopped; and the Jarmulowsky Bank.
