Orchard Street

For nearly two centuries, the block bounded by Orchard, Allen, Delancy, and Broome Streets served as a first home for immigrants and was repeatedly reshaped by generations of newcomers. During the early 1800s, American-born workers of English, Scottish, and Protestant Irish descent lived in wood and brick two- and three-story single-family houses along the dirt street, where some buildings also held small shops or factories. Beginning in the 1840s, large numbers of German immigrants settled around Orchard Street. In 1828, the Orchard Street Dutch Reformed Church was built on the site of present-day 95, 97, and 99 Orchard Street; in 1863, German-born tailors Jacob Walter, Lukas Glockner, and Adam Stumm bought the church property, divided it into three building lots, demolished the church, and erected the block’s first purpose-built tenements on their individual lots. By 1900, the block was the most densely populated place on earth, with 2,223 people living on 2.04 acres, most of them Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In 1903, the northern end of the block was cut back to widen Delancy Street for access to the newly built Williamsburg Bridge, and three buildings on each side of the street were demolished. In 1913, the three individual tenements at 103, 105, and 107 Orchard Street were joined into one corner building. Over the past two hundred years, Orchard Street was home to countless businesses, from lager beer saloons and groceries in the late 1800s to undergarment shops and dry goods stores in the early 1900s. When many tenements on Orchard Street were vacated during the 1930s, the street’s role as a commercial center ensured enough rent from shops alone to keep the buildings standing. In 1988, 97 Orchard Street was rediscovered by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum as a place to bring to life the history of tenement living and the diverse immigrant experience on the Lower East Side.

New York, New York · United States