Lower East Side Tenement Museum

About Me

The Tenement Museum does many things, but what we focus on is the tenement at 97 Orchard Street (pictured left). Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, this tenement was built in 1863 to house some of the immigrants who were pouring in to the city. Over the next 70 years, 97 Orchard was home to @ 7000 immigrants and migrants.
In 1935, the landlord evicted all the tenants and shuttered the building's apartments. In 1988, the Museum's founders stumbled on 97 Orchard Street. Realizing they had found an amazing window in to New York's past, they began preserving and restoring the building. Today, the Museum gives guided tours of the restored homes of the building's residents.
See our tenement for yourself! Visit The Tenement Museum!
Can't Make It To The Lower East Side? Take a Virtual Tour Of Our Tenement!

What Else Are We Working On?
Webcomics About Immigrant Teens:

Really Fun (Really!) Digital Art about Manhattan's Chinatown:
Our mission is to promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Anyone interested in history, immigrants, immigration, New York City, The Lower East Side, folk music, digital art, the labor movement, garment workers, urban history, the urban working class, Chinatowns all over the world, you name it, we want to meet you!

My Blog

The Bronx Fire

On a chilly winter evening, a fire breaks out in the basement of a multiple family home and quickly spreads through the rest of the building. People on the street below can see men, women, and c...
Posted by on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:36:00 GMT

Your Own Only-est

Of the 2,892 artifacts we have found in 97 Orchard Street, few are as evocative as this amorous letter: ..Undated and torn at the edges, it's also a mystery. We don't know who wrote it, who i...
Posted by on Tue, 06 Feb 2007 07:22:00 GMT

The Secret History of CBGBs

So, my original plan was to call this entry Baby I'm For Real and post links both to the supersweet soul song, Baby I'm For Real (dig the glockenspiel!) by the Originals and our new webcomic documenta...
Posted by on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:00:00 GMT

tenement graffito

After first entering the third floor of the tenement building at 97 Orchard Street in 1988, museum staff discovered this graffito scrawled on the pressed metal hallway wall. ...
Posted by on Thu, 18 Jan 2007 07:50:00 GMT

Vive La 2007! Vive La Gods of Chinatown!

Hello there,Hope you all enjoyed the recent holidays--I spazzed out with some kiddies in Rochester, which was swell. Though I am feeling pretty darn icky now. Darn kids.Ok, you did ...
Posted by on Wed, 27 Dec 2006 14:16:00 GMT

Welcome to the Tenement Museum/Some News

Hello!After months of being pestered by our Collections Manager, we now have a MySpace page. Yeah! I am guessing few folks are reading this and those who are don't want to read a lot of prattle, esp...
Posted by on Thu, 07 Dec 2006 21:46:00 GMT