Lower East Side Tenement Museum in Brief:
Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers tours to visitors and the opportunity to see a New York City tenement building first-hand. Visits to the tenement building are available only with a guided tour, which share the stories of actual families that lived in the 97 Orchard Street building.
Getting to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum:
- Lower East Side Tenement Museum Visitors Center Location:
108 Orchard Street (Map) - Lower East Side Tenement Museum Subways: B/D to Grand Street; F to Delancey Street; J/M/Z to Essex Street
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Phone:
- Ticketing: 866-606-7232
- General Info: 212-982-8420
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Admission:
Access to the Museum's tenement is only available through their 1-hour guided tours. All tours begin at the Visitors Center at 108 Orchard Street.
Ticket Prices:
- Adults: $20
- Students: $15
- Seniors: $15
- Members: Free
Walking/Building Tour Combo Ticket:
- Adults: $35
- Students: $27
- Seniors: $27
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Hours:
The Visitors Center at 108 Orchard is open daily from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
See the complete tour schedule for actual tour times.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Ticketing:
- Purchasing advance tickets is highly recommended (Online ticketing).
- Tickets can be purchased for same-day tours at the Visitors Center, saving the $2.45 convenience charge, but there is no guarantee tickets will be available.
- American Sign Language Interpreted tours are periodically available.
Good to Know About the Lower East Side Tenement Museum:
- Tenement tours require walking up stairs. The specific number of steps on each tour can be helpful in planning
- No food or drink is allowed on tours, except water.
- I recommend bringing water on hot days, it can be very hot (no central a/c), but this adds to the authenticity of the tenement experience.
- No photos are allowed inside the tenement.
- The Visitors Center (108 Orchard Street) offers a great opportunity to purchase unique souvenirs.
Lower East Side Tenement Museum Official Website:
Lower East Side Tenement Museum with Kids:
- All tours are open to children ages 8 and up, except The Moores with is open to children 12 and up.
- The Corfino Family Apartment tour is geared specifically toward children and families and is appropriate for children ages 5 and up.
About the Lower East Side Tenement Museum:
Generations of new immigrants have made the Lower East Side their homes -- and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum enables visitors to get a closer look into their lives and homes. Located at 97 Orchard Street, the Museum's tenement building housed more than 7,000 people from 20 different countries between 1863 and 1935. The five story building has 20 individual apartments, and the Museum has painstakingly researched and recreated the apartments of four different families who once lived in the building (they are currently working on a fifth apartment).
A visit to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers the unique opportunity to see how new immigrants really lived -- while today's New Yorkers are apt to complain about crowded apartments, the 375 square foot apartments often housed whole families, and sometimes were also used for operating businesses. From coin operated gas meters for heating water to eggs set out for Shiva, the beauty of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is in their intense attention to details. Friendly, knowledgeable tour guides not only share the stories of the immigrant families who lived at 97 Orchard Street, they also help visitors connect to the experience by asking them to share their own interests and family history.
The Museum offers four different tours to the public, as well as a neighborhood walking tour.
- Piecing It Together: this 1 hour tour focuses on the garment industry with visits to the Levine and Rogarshevsky family apartments
- Getting By: this 1 hour tour visits the Gumpertz and Baldizzi family apartments and highlights the challenges that immigrants faced, as well as the social networks and programs available to help them (ages 8+)
- The Confino Family Apartment: this 1 hour tour is interactive, with opportunities to try on clothing, touch items in the apartment and even dance, making it a good choice for families with children 5+
- Piecing it Together: this one hour tour visits the apartments of three families, including the Rogarshevsky family, and offers insight into the homes & garment shop of Jewish families who lived in the tenement during the "great wave" of immigration to America (ages 8+)
- The Moores: An Irish Family in America: this one hour tour visits Irish-Catholic immigrants coping with the death of a child in 1869 and compares them to the Katz family, Russian-Jewish immigrants living in the building in the 1930’s (ages 12+)
