Lower East Side Tenement Museum

On Orchard Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the historic tenement buildings at 97 and 103 Orchard Street anchor a National Historic Site devoted to the immigrant experience in New York. Together they housed an estimated 15,000 people from more than 20 nations. Built in 1863, 97 Orchard Street began as overcrowded housing with few services and was gradually altered as tenement laws changed, then was sealed in 1935, preserving much of it as a time capsule. Founded in 1988, the museum restored these buildings to present former residents’ lives through apartments, shops, and programs exploring migration, labor, housing reform, and belonging in the United States.

New York, New York · United States