I am interested in visiting this museum, but find the information somewhat confusing. There are several different tours. Do you select one or more than one? Is the museum one building? What about the walking tours?

I would appreciate info on how to navigate this museum.

We did the "Getting By" tour a couple of weeks ago. I picked it mostly based on date and time b/c I'd read that all the tours are good. Also, my mom has trouble with her hip and I didn't want her to have to walk up too maany flights of stairs (we climbed 2 flights). We LOVED our tour and our guide.
You check in at the bookstore across the street from the "museum" which is an actual former tenement building (1 building). One group of women on our tour was going on a second tour about 30 min. after ours ended. I was jealous!
Everyone seemed very friendly and enthusiastic. I HIGHLY recommend the Tenement Museum and will return on our next trip to NYC.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...ce-tickets.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...ent-museum.cfm

We just went to the Tenement Museum (took a while to find it) without having pre-booked any tour. We found the information in the 'office' opposite that books the tours, very informative and they explained the different tours. We booked for the next tour available which was the 'getting by' tour, very interesting and well worth the effort finding the museum.The area around where the museum is is very interesting too.

There is one building. There used to be one tour seeing one apartment. Then, they restored another apartment and had a second tour. The museum became more and more popular and they restored more apartments so they have created "theme" tours around each apartment and stagger the starts of the tours. So, different groups may be in different apartments, but all of the tours are very well done and very interesting.

I've been several times over the years and each time is a wonderful experience. It's one of my favorite "things to do" in NYC.

Agree with all the kudos for the Tenement Museum, plus the gift shop/bookstore where you purchase your tickets has some of the most interesting and unique items I saw anywhere in the city. (Though I only purchased a "No Irish Need Apply" refrigerator magnet...)

That refrigerator magnet reminds me of my grandmother. When she went to look for her first job (in 1912 0r 13) she said a lot of places had that sign in the window. It was assumed that you were either 1) stupid or 2) a thief - or both. There were only limited careers open (she ended up being a sales assistant in an upscale department store - and due to her gift of the gab - and striking looks - was eventually promoted to selling furs (often to elderly men buying them for their wives and "close friends" at the same time.

But they didnt live downtown - she lived - I;m sure in railroad flat in a similar building on 103rd St.

Both of grandfathers grew up just a few blocks from the Museum and worked like dogs to move elsewhere. Now their moron grnadson thinks it is a great neighborhood.

My mother had a cousin who still lived there (Rivington St.) in the late 30's and we visited her there. It was the drabbest, non-descript neighborhood imaginable. A place to get out of - and most did. Now their great grandchildren are moving back in. Go figure.

As long as the buildings have been rehabbed it's a great central location. Where my grandmother grew up has been gentrified and now it costs a small fortune to live there.

nytraveler, my grandmother also remembered seeing those type of signs when she lived in Boston (pre-1920s).

ita, all tours start at 108 Orchard, then you walk over to 97 Orchard where the tours take place in the tenement building. I've taken the Getting By tour. We saw two apartments, one from the 1870s and one from the 1930s. It is extremely well-done and informative.

Oh Adu - exactly. When I got my first apartment sublet at age 17, very early '70's - a shack on top of a sweatshop on Grand St. between Forsythe and Chrystie, my father came by and nearly wept. He said his (Irish) mother worked 3 jobs for years so HE and his 8 siblings would never have to live like this again, and one generation later, it all came full circle.

I guess my grandmother's goals came true though, because now I made it all the way uptown to Chelsea . . .

When you have your own bathroom, it makes all the difference.