Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Lower East Side Tenement Museum Review

Step back in time and into the partially restored 1863 tenement building at 97 Orchard St., where you can squeeze through the preserved apartments of immigrants on one of four one-hour tours. This is America's first urban living-history museum dedicated to the life of immigrants—and one of the city's most underrated and overlooked. Getting By visits the homes of Natalie Gumpertz, a German-Jewish dressmaker (dating from 1878) and Adolph and Rosaria Baldizzi, Catholic immigrants from Sicily (1935). Piecing It Together visits the Levines' garment shop/apartment and the Rogarshevsky family from Eastern Europe (1918). The tour through the Confino family apartment is designed for children, who are greeted by a costumed interpreter playing Victoria Confino. Her family of Sephardic Jews came from Kastoria, Turkey, which is now part of Greece (1916). Another tour explores the life of the Moores, an Irish American family living in the building in 1869, and shows a re-created tenement rear yard. Building tours are limited to 15 people, so consider buying tickets in advance. A two-hour extended experience tour with a chance for in-depth discussion is offered every day. Walking tours of the neighborhood are also held daily. The visitor information center and excellent gift shop displays a video with interviews of Lower East Side residents past and present.