Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Good for: Immigrants, children of immigrants, history buffs, History Lovers
Not good for: handicapped people, Non-English speakers, no-one!
- Address
- 108 Orchard St btwn Broome & Delancey Sts
- Transport
- Website
- Phone
- 212-431-0233
- Price
- admission $22
- Hours
- 10am-6pm
Lonely Planet review for Lower East Side Tenement Museum
This museum puts the neighborhood’s heartbreaking but inspiring heritage on full display in three recreations of turn-of-the-20th-century tenements, including the late-19th-century home and garment shop of the Levine family from Poland, and two immigrant dwellings from the Great Depressions of 1873 and 1929. The visitor center shows a video detailing the difficult life endured by the people who once lived in the surrounding buildings, which more often than not had no running water or electricity. Museum visits are available only as part of scheduled tours (the price of which is included in the admission), which typically operate daily. But call ahead or check the website for the schedules, as they change frequently. The museum also leads various other tours, from one that explores various Lower East Side sites and their role in the neighborhood’s immigration history to another that visits the restored home of Irish immigrants who dealt with the death of a child in the 1800s.

