The New York Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side

The New York City Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side is a real tenement building which was erected during the Civil War. Changes were made to the building through the early 1900's. On each floor of the building were four apartments. Each was tiny and housed an entire family and usually a border or two to help pay the rent. About 1905 toilets were brought indoors. Until then, "privies" were outside in the courtyard. Each floor had two toilets in the hallway. These improvements were due to the housing legislation enacted in 1901 which were known as The Tenement House Act or "New Law." At the turn of the century the Lower East Side was one of the most densely populated areas in the entire world.

With this large population in such a small space, disease was rampant. My father used to tell me that when he lived in a tenement building in 1918 during the influenza epidemic, every floor had several people die. Children died at an alarming rate and wagons came by on a regular basis to pick up the dead.

When taking a tour of the Museum, I could feel the sadness there. My father was the oldest child in a family of nine. There were not enough beds in such a small apartment for everyone. He slept in the kitchen next to the stove to keep warm during the winter. In the summer he slept on the fire escape.

The tenement my father grew up in was only a few blocks from this Museum on Orchard Street. He experienced the same horrible living conditions as working-class immigrants have done through the years.

The Tenement Museum focuses on several immigrant groups. One apartment was rented to a German-Jewish dressmaker, Nathalie Gumpertz. In 1847 she became the sole support for her four young children when her husband "disappeared." There are many stories of men "disappearing" from the stress of this over crowded neighborhood.

During the 1930s the Baldizzi family, Catholic immigrants from Sicily, endured hardships wrought by the Great Depression. During the tour, only a few apartments could be visited. Many of the apartments contain the original furniture and personal effects from the inhabitants.

The Museum's mission statement is "to promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America." Be prepared to shed a few tears if your relatives passed through Ellis Island or Castle Gardens and settled in lower Manhattan.

Museum tours last about an hour and 15 minutes and cost $9.00. (That is probably more than my grandparents paid for a month's rent!) Check the website at www.tenement.org for updated program information. Leave lots of time to visit the shopping establishments in the area. Tradition old-world stores and trendy boutiques co-exist in this diverse neighborhood. After shopping, "nosh" on the delicacies of the Lower East Side. There are lots of deli sandwiches, lox, blintzes, as well as Asian and Italian food.