tenement museum tour

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Alerts in effect, step into another time at the tenement museum.

The Tenement Museum tells the stories of working-class tenement residents, who moved to New York City from other countries and other parts of the country. Their work helped build the city and nation, and their stories help us understand our history. The museum shares these stories through guided tours of recreated tenement apartments, neighborhood walking tours, and virtual tours and programs.

Plan Your Visit to the Tenement Museum

Learn what to do and where to go when you visit!

Last updated: April 13, 2022

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103 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002

877 975-3786

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Millions of Americans can trace their ancestry back to tenements like this one.

Take a look inside to see how the tenement museum has preserved its history.

This story contains audio. Listen as you scroll.

In the middle of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of new Americans flooded into New York. They found homes in buildings like this one, on Orchard Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where the population density in some neighborhoods approached nearly a quarter-million people per square mile by the mid 1860s.

Architecturally, 97 Orchard St. was simple and indistinguishable from thousands of other utilitarian structures. Today, it is preserved by the Tenement Museum, an innovative public history organization. Inside, visitors can see relics and reminders of one of the most consequential migrations in human history, a flood tide of humanity that changed the fabric of America.

For decades, tenement dwellers had only basic protection from fire but almost none from disease. As public understanding of contagious disease improved, housing laws in 1879 and 1901 helped spur incremental changes. “The Tenement acts were not about comfort, but about public health,” says Dave Favaloro, the Tenement Museum’s senior director of curatorial affairs.

Step into its cramped spaces to follow this brick structure along the y-axis of time, as landlords and residents grappled with such diseases as tuberculosis, cholera and influenza, — and as the fear of fire and bad air, even immigrants themselves, left indelible marks on its design and structure.

Archie William Friedberg, 97 Orchard resident 1914-18 | recorded in 1992.

Audio courtesy of the Tenement Museum

Among the busiest spaces in this crowded building was this basement saloon, operated by John and Caroline Schneider, a German couple, from 1864 to 1886. Today, it contains a map of Germany, sheet music and musical instruments. Beer gardens and saloons were essential social glue for German immigrants, yet others saw them as sites of drunkenness and lechery and worried about their impact on “traditional” American values.

The Schneiders lived and worked in the same basement space, and Caroline likely would have prepared food for her clients in this kitchen, next to the public room. Both died of tuberculosis, Caroline in 1885 and John in 1892.

In the 1860s, disease was an urgent fear, and rife in New York’s tenements. Tuberculosis was endemic in the city, but in the years after the Schneiders’ deaths, scientific understanding of how the contagion spread would expand. In addition, progressives used changes to the law, architecture and urban design to fight disease.

Among the most feared was cholera, spread by human waste. To access a toilet, patrons of the Schneiders’ bar, like residents of the apartments above, would have had to make their way to the backyard.

Step into what would have been a small, dark and smelly exterior courtyard to see the minimal plumbing this building offered when it was new.

When 97 Orchard St. was built, the only bathrooms were here, behind the building, and the only source of fresh water for the 22 apartments was this hydrant, attached to the municipal water system. The facilities here, which used a separate water source rather than a ground well, were considered more sanitary than those in many other buildings in the area.

When this building was still used as a tenement house, the backyard would have been much darker and more enclosed because it faced the rear of another tenement, torn down in 1930-31. And yet it also was a space where neighbors would encounter each other directly, whether they wanted to or not.

The tenement at 97 Orchard St. appealed to the museum’s founders in part because the building behind it had been torn down. That allowed street access to the back of the museum and room for this modern external staircase, which provides egress.

The museum works to balance today’s safety demands while preserving the interiors as much as possible. Some apartments have also been left exactly as they were found, after years of decay. Others have been re-created to represent a particular time period. The Tenement Museum doesn’t preserve this building to represent a single historical moment but, rather, a cross-section of different times.

Step into an apartment preserved as it would have looked in 1910, with some basic improvements to living conditions.

Around 1890, the landlords at 97 Orchard St. installed windows between the parlor and the kitchen to increase airflow and light, at the time thought to help reduce TB outbreaks. They were also likely trying to make their spaces more attractive in the competitive world of short-term tenement rentals. At the same time, there was a larger movement to improve conditions in New York’s tenements. In 1901, a new tenement law required indoor plumbing and gas lighting.

Apartments on the south side of the building were made smaller to include two water closets off the hall.

An air shaft was built to eliminate odors from the toilets. Walls were moved, and some tenants had less space. As of 1905, when these water closets were installed, the residents of this apartment no longer had to descend to the basement level to use the bathroom.

This door, at the rear of what is known as the Levine family apartment, allowed residents to move between the front and the back of the building in case of fire. The door was supposed to be kept unlocked, which meant privacy had to be negotiated between neighbors. Lines between private and public space were fluid, and children who grew up in buildings like this one remember using the city as a playground when conditions were cramped at home.

To build public support for reform, progressive activists often represented New York’s tenements as dark, overcrowded and dangerous. They were, but they also were homes, and often workplaces. The Levine family used this room as both a living and garment-making space. An 1892 inspector’s report indicated that there were three employees working full-time in this front room to make dresses, putting in 10-hour shifts.

In 1924, the fear of immigrants reached a peak, and the United States passed the Johnson-Reed Act, barring most immigrants from Asia and cutting by 80 percent arrivals from countries in Europe. In 1934, New York required landlords to replace wooden stairs with brick or masonry. Fewer immigrants, stricter housing codes and upward social mobility depressed demand for apartments in such buildings. A year later, the owner of 97 Orchard St. evicted his remaining tenants and closed the upper-floor apartments, leaving only a few businesses on the lower two levels. For more than half a century, these apartments fell into ruin, until the Tenement Museum moved in and started to re-create the lives of the building’s former occupants.

Millions of Americans can trace their ancestry back to buildings like this one, and collective memory frequently softens the narrative. Conditions were often dire, and disease rampant, and tenement laws were driven as much by xenophobia as by genuine concern for the poor. The fear of outsiders, often associated with actual and metaphorical disease, continues to shape Americans’ views of their own identity and security. Today, these buildings are part of a thriving neighborhood, with many apartments joined to create larger, more habitable spaces. And the Tenement Museum continues its mission to preserve and memorialize the lives, not of the great and famous, but of ordinary Americans who did their best to make this place home.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that among the effects of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 was a cut by 80 percent of immigrant arrivals from the Western Hemisphere. The act effectively cut immigrant arrivals from many countries in Europe. The story has been corrected.

About this story

Kolin Pope is a three-time Emmy nominated animator and director whose work in documentary and journalism has been featured in The Washington Post, NBC News and Vice. He lives in Portland, Ore.

Editing by Jenna Pirog, Amy Hitt, Elite Truong. Audio editing and original score by Ted Muldoon. Copy editing by Adrienne Dunn. Photogrammetry and laser scanning by SOE Studio.

This story uses photogrammetry, a noncontact, nondestructive technique that records the exact size and shape of existing spaces and objects by combining thousands of images to output a 3-D rendering of a space. The Post used a lidar scanner, drones and handheld cameras to scan and photograph all sides of the building and rooms on location at the Tenement Museum on the lower east side of Manhattan. We used Reality Capture to process the images, clean up and output a 3-D model, and Cinema 4D to customize the lighting and animate the 3-D sequences.

Some cleanup of the models is required for purposes of formatting, authenticity, and visual clarity, especially of features that do not render well with the technique. As a result, some objects, like the gas lighting hanging from the ceiling, appear to have holes in them. The water closet we scanned is located on the Museum’s second floor, and was added to the third floor in post-production.

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Tenement Museum Tickets and Tours

This post is about how to visit the Tenement Museum in New York City, including getting tickets, directions, what you will see at the museum, and an analysis of reviews.

The museum is housed in actual tenement buildings built in 1863.

The building served as a residence for approximately 7,000 immigrants from the time it was built all the way into the 1930s.

The only way to visit the museum (housed in historic tenement buildings) is by taking a tour or guided experience.

The museum offers many tours each day, but tours do sell out. If you are flexible about what day and time you can go, your chances of getting tickets increase.

It can't hurt to be spontaneous so you can always call at the last minute and see if tickets are available.

• Plan Your Visit
• Museum Tours
• Lower East Side Food Tour
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PLAN YOUR VISIT

TIP: A great way to complement your visit to the museum is to take our pay-what-you-wish Lower East Side Food Tour . See more below .

Getting There

The Tenement Museum is at 103 Orchard Street at the corner of Delancey Street in the Lower East Side. ( map )

• B or D trains to Grand Street
• F train to Delancey Street 
• J/M/Z to Essex Street

You can use this Google Map to get exact directions from your point of departure to the Museum.

If you are new to New York, you may find the following posts regarding the NYC subway helpful.

• How to Navigate the NYC Subway
• Which Subway Travel Card Is Best?  

M15 North and South Bound. There is a bus stop at the corner of Grand and Allen Streets. 

By Car:  Click   here for directions and parking information .

TIP: Many sightseeing bus tours have stops in the Lower East Side within walking distance of the Tenement Museum. 

If you are thinking of taking a bus tour, see our post about  which New York bus tour is best?  

Museum Shop and Visitor Center Hours

The Visitor Center and Museum Shop are 7 days a week, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm , except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Days. 

Choosing the Best Tour for You

As stated above, you can only visit the Musem by taking one of their tours.   They offer many different tours each with its own theme. 

Tours vary in duration so this is something to keep in mind. Also, some  building tours require you to walk a few flights of stairs.

These old buildings can get hot in the summer, just like they did 100 years ago!

Below we list the types of tours they offer. 

MUSEUM TOURS

The museum offers many variations on the tours below, far too many to explain here.  You can see more details on their website . 

Note that tours are not recommended for children below the age of 6.

Apartment Tours

On these tours, you visit the apartments and homes of former residents of the building.

They have been designed to look as they did more than a century ago. 

Your guide will discuss life in that era and help you imagine the experience of the families that lived in 97 Orchard.

Neighborhood Walking Tours  

These tours are led by guides who show you around the neighborhood while explaining different aspects of the neighborhood.

Tours include topics like how locals spent time outside of their homes a hundred years ago.

Another topic is how the neighborhood has changed over the decades. 

Apartment Tours - Meet the Residents

These tours have the added bonus of having a 'resident' (a costumed performer) of the building show you around their apartment. 

These tours are especially good for families with children.

Note: These tours are on a limited number of Saturdays and Sundays and are booked up fast. 

Other Events at the Museum

The Museum has special events, including panels  discussing the themes of immigration,  food history, music, health, and politics.

Also, every Thursday evening, the Tenement Museum hosts events and programs that are not offered any other time.

Some of these events are free and some require a ticket.  See the schedule here .

This unique museum can sometimes sell out of tickets. We highly recommend that you buy your tickets in advance.  The museum posts its tour schedule online 6 weeks in advance. 

Apartment Tour Tickets: 

• Students $30
• Seniors $30
• Children under 5 are not permitted at this time 

Walking Tour Tickets: 

• Adults $ 30

Apartment Tours- Meet the Residents :

• Children under 5 are 5 not permitted at this time 

You can  purchase tickets on their website , in person inside the gift shop, or by phone at 877-975-3786.  

REVIEWS OF THE TENEMENT MUSEUM

The Tenement Museum has a very good 4.5-star TripAdvisor rating.  Overall, guests have been very pleased with their experiences.  

Many reviews point out how fascinating and interesting the inside of the 97 Orchard tenement apartment building is. 

Guests have been mostly pleased by the guides and the content of all the tours.

There are some, but not many, negative reviews. The most frequent complaint is that the tours are too expensive.

Guests love the gift shop, which offers a great selection of books and many other New York City-related items.

LOWER EAST SIDE FOOD TOUR

The Lower East Side is one of NYC's most vibrant neighborhoods. That is why we created our pay-what-you-wish   Lower East Side Food Tour .

You can take this tour before or after visiting the Tenement Museum, or instead of the museum tour which is somewhat expensive!

Our guides tell you about the history of immigration in the neighborhood, including what life was like in the tenements. 

You'll also learn about the area’s well-known art scene. And of course, you'll be tasting some of the best and cheapest treats the neighborhood has to offer.

Be sure to take a look at  our full lineup of New York food tours .

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