Lower East Side

The Tenement Museum preserves and celebrates the Lower East Side’s storied history of the immigrant and migrant experience. A beacon for newcomers to America, the neighborhood itself is as much a part of the Museum as are 97 and 103 Orchard Street. Visitors to the Museum can explore the changing landscape of the neighborhood and many facets of the immigrant experience through our neighborhood walking tours, apartment tours, and guided experiences.

A Cultural Epicenter

The Lower East Side has been home to an incredibly diverse set of immigrants and migrants dating back to the 1800s. Each group of newcomers left their mark on the neighborhood, which helped shape the cultural heritage of New York City and America. Historically, it has been known as “Little Germany” in the mid-1800s and as “the world’s largest Jewish city” in the early 1900s. The Lower East Side was also home to the largest Puerto Rican community in the mainland United States, and is currently one of the country’s largest Chinatowns.

Shoppers on a busy street buying food and browsing other items being sold in pushcarts and stalls
Close-up photo of pushcarts with crates full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Some customers are looking and picking produce.
Group photo of an older adult with light skin tone and 8 children of varying skin tones gathered around, all smiling and laughing
A couple of pushcarts surround a shopkeeper who is frowning while sitting on a crate with the brooms and mops they're selling piled behind them
An adult with light skin tone teaching 6 young children in skirts and braids how to dance in a fenced concrete yard
Old shops on Orchard Street almost overflowing with t-shirts and plants hanging on display as the owners stand out front with costumers
Cars pass in front of 6 neighboring tenements with street-level storefronts for "Delancey's Bargain Store", "Bunnie's Shoes", and "KFC"
Rows of adults sitting at tables gathered in a large auditorium space playing bingo. A large sign reading "God is Good" hangs above the stage.
Photo of tenements with people walking by on the sidewalk, looking out from their windows, and lounging on the building steps in the summer
Two young adults walk casually past an older adult picking up a purchase from a shopkeeper on a street lined with bins and barrels

Tenement Housing 

A boom in New York’s population in the mid-to-late 1800s led to the rise of tenement housing on the Lower East Side. Tenements were low-rise buildings with multiple apartments, which were narrow and typically made up of three rooms. Because rents were low, tenement housing was the common choice for new immigrants in New York City. It was common for a family of 10 to live in a 325-square-foot apartment.

Color photo of the Rogarshevsky family kitchen at 97 Orchard Street where cookware sits on a ledge above a stove nestled between a small bed, chair, and table.
Adult carrying a baby while standing beside an older child and 2 younger children in a doorway in the hallway of a tenement
Color photo of the Saez-Velez family's living room with pictures hanging up on floral wallpaper that matches the plastic-covered couch

Jobs and the Garment Trade

In addition to affordable housing, many immigrants and migrants gravitated toward the Lower East Side for job opportunities in the garment industry. Almost every generation of immigrants to the Lower East Side has been touched by the industry. Many of the stories of 97 and 103 Orchard Street have ties to the garment trade. Prior to 1850, German immigrants worked in small garment shops followed by Irish immigrants from 1850-1880. By the turn of the 20th Century, the Lower East Side emerged as both the center of the nation’s garment production, powered by the Jewish and Italian immigrants who now held the jobs in the shops and factories. Successive groups of newcomers would continue to transform the garment industry in the 20th century, including Puerto Rican migrants and Chinese immigrants.

A strip of pink fabric is between the needle and base of an old wooden sewing machine next to a pair of metal scissors
Garment factory in Chinatown where seven adults are working at sewing machine stations with overflowing piles of fabric
Exterior of the Sidney Undergarment Company storefront at 97 Orchard, displaying underclothes for women

Neighborhood Walking Tours

Visitors to the Tenement Museum can explore the Lower East Side and learn about the neighborhood’s past and present on any of our neighborhood walking tours!

The Grand Street Guild and Saint Marys Church
Neighborhood Walking Tours

Building on the Lower East Side

Every building on the Lower East Side tells its own story. On this tour, learn about the architects, artists and everyday people who influenced the design and use of the neighborhood’s buildings and shaped the streetscape of you see today.

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Historic photo of the Forward Building on the Lower East Side
Neighborhood Walking Tours

Outside the Home

Discover how Lower East Siders shaped and were shaped by their neighborhood over the 19th and early 20th Centuries. From stores to parks, movie theaters to schools, discover how these spaces became important cultural centers.

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Reclaiming Black Spaces Image
Neighborhood Walking Tours

Reclaiming Black Spaces

From the story of Sebastiaen de Britto, one of the first Black residents of the area in the 1640s, to Studio We, a musician’s collective in the 1970s, we’ll look through windows into the past that expand the history of today’s Lower East Side.

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Food Experiences
Food Experiences

Foods of the Lower East Side

Explore over 150 years of Lower East Side history through the stories of immigrant and migrant communities and the unique food cultures that defined life in the neighborhood! Visit 10 unique stops and 5 small tastings from local LES vendors.

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