The Tenement Museum (Tenement buildings at 97 & 103 Orchard St.)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
U.S. National Historic Site
(2010)
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Show map of Lower Manhattan Lower East Side Tenement Museum Show map of New York City Lower East Side Tenement Museum Show map of New York Lower East Side Tenement Museum Show map of the United States
Location	97 Orchard Street,Manhattan,New York 10002
Coordinates	40°43′06.6″N73°59′24.5″W / 40.718500°N 73.990139°W /40.718500; -73.990139
Area	0.0925 acres (4,030 ft2; 374 m2)
Built	1863
Architectural style	Italianate
Website	www.tenement.org
NRHP reference No.	92000556[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	May 19, 1992
Designated NHL	April 19, 1994
Designated NHS	November 12, 1998

TheLower East Side Tenement Museum is a museum andNational Historic Site located at 97 and 103Orchard Street on theLower East Side ofManhattan inNew York City, United States. The museum's two historicaltenement buildings were home to an estimated 15,000 people, from over 20 nations, between 1863 and 1935 (97 Orchard Street) and 1888 and 2015 (103 Orchard Street). The museum, which includes a visitors' center, promotes tolerance and historical perspective on theimmigrant experience.

The building at 97 Orchard Street was contracted byPrussian-born immigrant Lukas Glockner in 1863 and was modified several times to conform with theNew York State Tenement House Act. When first constructed, it contained 22 apartments and a basement level saloon. Over time, fourstoop-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 (coldrunning water, two toilets per floor), anair 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 thestoop-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 oftime capsule, reflecting 19th and early 20th century living conditions and the changing notions of what constitutes acceptable housing. Thanks to extensive restoration over many years (overseen in phases byPerkins Eastman and Li/Saltzman Architects) visitors can explore two different buildings—97 and 103 Orchard Street—and view recreated apartments that represent eras across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.^[2][3][4][5]

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 aNational Historic Landmark on April 19, 1994. TheNational Historic Site was authorized on November 12, 1998. It is an affiliated area of theNational Park Service but is owned and administered by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. The site received aSave America's Treasures matching grant for $250,000 in 2000 for preservation work. In 2001 the museum was awarded theRudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence silver medal.^[6] In 2005, the museum was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from theCarnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayorMichael Bloomberg.^[7][8] 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.^[9]

The Tenement Museum attracted some negative press in 2007 related to its employees seeking union membership^[10] as well as for its planned acquisition of the building at 99 Orchard Street througheminent domain in 2002.^[11][12]

The current president of the museum is Dr. Annie Polland, who took over the role from Dr. Morris Vogel in 2021.^[13]

The museum's exhibits and programs include restoredperiod room apartments and shops open daily for public tours, depicting the lives ofimmigrants 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 ofAmerican history. The museum also has an extensive collection of historical archives and provides a variety of educational programs.^[14]

An exhibition titled "Under One Roof" opened in December 2017. Located at 103 Orchard Street, above the Visitor Center, the exhibition explores the lives of aHolocaust refugee family, aPuerto Rican migrant family, and aChinese immigrant family.^[15]

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 on 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.^[16] 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.^[17]

The buildings comprising the Tenement Museum were influenced by the New York State Tenement House Acts of1867,1879, and1901. The building at 97 Orchard Street was built prior to the passage of the 1867 act, which required at least one toilet for every 20 tenants, a connection to the city's sewage system, and a fire escape. As such, 97 Orchard was split into 20 apartments, each with three rooms; there was originally no running water, sewage system, or garbage disposal system. The rear units did not have any natural light or access to air, as was required of tenements built under the 1879 act. To comply with the 1901 act (which required buildings to include running water, gas, light, and ventilation), some of the partition walls were retrofitted with windows, and toilets and air shafts were built.^[18]

Lower East Side Tenement Museum has been featured in several films, includingCrossing Delancey (1988)^[19] andThe Definition of Insanity (2004), where the museum was used as setting for the interior hospital sequences.^[20] It was spoofed in a 2017Saturday Night Live skit in whichLouis C. K. andKate McKinnon played Polish immigrants tellingethnic jokes about Italians.^[21][22] The museum also made a brief appearance in the Netflix original seriesDash & Lily (2020), where it is the exterior backdrop while Lily skips down the street at the beginning of episode 2, season 1.

• List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City
• Jane Ziegelman, the museum's culinary director and author of97 Orchard
• Bialystoker Synagogue
• A Stoop on Orchard Street, a musical inspired by a visit to the museum
• Tenement House (Glasgow), a similar museum in Scotland
• List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan below 14th Street

Notes

Bibliography

• The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington:U.S. Department of the Interior.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toLower East Side Tenement Museum.

• 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
• "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Tenement Building at 97 Orchard Street", October 8, 1993, by Larry Lowenthal, Andrew S. Dolkart, and Judith P. Baumwoll. (152 KiB) andNHL Nomination Tenement at 97 Orchard Street—Accompanying 7 photos, exterior and interior, undated, courtesy of the National Park Service (371 KiB)
• Public Law No: 105-378
• Biography of a Tenement House in New York City: An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street,ISBN 978-1-930066-57-1

• 1988 establishments in New York City
• Ethnic museums in New York City
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• History of immigration to the United States
• Lower East Side
• Museums established in 1988
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• Museums of human migration
• National Historic Landmarks in Manhattan
• National Historic Sites in New York (state)
• Progressive Era in the United States
• Residential buildings completed in 1863
• Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan
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