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Kids Corner
A Glimpse at Life in a Tenement House
Chances are you live in a house with a yard or an apartment building with places to play, and you probably have your own bedroom, or a room you share with one brother or sister.
Imagine living a hundred years ago with your entire family, possibly your grandparents, too, or an aunt and uncle and even a paid boarder, in a narrow apartment the size of just one or two rooms in your home today. An apartment up five flights of stairs in pitch-dark hallways. An apartment with no running water, no bathroom — just an outhouse five floors down — and no electricity.
In New York City in the late 1800s and early 1900s, tens of thousands of immigrant children grew up in apartments like that in buildings known as tenement houses. Today visitors to New York can tour a restored tenement house and get an idea of what life was like for the children and their families.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street was home to 7,000 immigrants from 20 countries between 1863 and 1935. The building had 20 apartments, each with just one window and about 325 square feet of living space.
In a book about immigrant children in New York, called Immigrant Kids, Russell Freedman describes the conditions. “Five or six people might sleep in one crowded room. Children were commonly tucked three and four to a bed. On hot summer nights, the stifling tenement rooms became unbearable.”
Families would try to find relief from the heat on the roof or the streets, and adventurous children would make sleeping tents of bed sheets on the buildings’ fire escapes.
Even though their living areas were so tiny, many immigrants had to use their space for work, too. As the author describes, “Tenement apartments became busy workshops where entire families labored seven days a week sewing clothing, making artificial flowers, rolling cigars, shelling nuts and performing other low-paying tasks. Children worked alongside their parents from the time they were old enough to follow directions.”
The neighborhood around the Orchard Street tenement house was filled with similar buildings. It was the most densely populated area in New York City in 1903, with more than 2,200 people, 450 families, on one block alone.
In 1901, the Tenement House Act in New York began to make landlords put toilets, light and ventilation in their buildings and required new buildings to be wider. Landlords bitterly fought the law. Ultimately, they either made the changes or closed down their tenements.
Lighting was a big issue for residents. Hallways had no light at all and people injured themselves by tripping on buckled floorboards or holes in the floor. Even worse, one resident who testified before Tenement House Committee in 1900 said, “One tumbles over human obstacles and other obstacles, especially little children.”
What’s remarkable about the tenements at 97 Orchard Street is the care the residents took with their apartments. In spite of the cramped space and lack of light, fresh water and other things we take for granted today, many residents kept their apartments clean and neat. They displayed pictures and keepsakes, and put up pretty wallpaper and curtains, to turn the drab space into a warm home.
If you visit the museum, you’ll get to walk through three apartments that have been restored with the furniture, clothing, dishes and other belongings of the families who lived there. You’ll learn about each family’s history and heritage and get to hear part of a taped interview with a woman who lived in the house as a child.
“In the back room, my brother and I slept on a folding bed,” Josephine Baldizzi said. “I slept at one end, my brother at the other.” Crowded as it was, they had a lot of fun.
“We had a trunk. It became our stage,” she said. “Whatever movie came out, we were acting and singing it. Rita (a neighbor) would come down and we would fight over who would be Claudette Colbert.”
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers guided tours every half hour between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and every 20 minutes from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tours last one hour, 15 minutes and cost $9 for adults and $7 for students and seniors. Only 15 people can be accommodated per tour, and they sell out quickly. The museum visitors’ center, at 90 Orchard Street is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tour tickets can be purchased there the day of your visit or are available in advance online or by telephone at (800) 965-4827. For ticket information and other questions about the museum, go to its website at www.tenement.org.
Chances are you live in a house with a yard or an apartment building with places to play, and you probably have your own bedroom, or a room you share with one brother or sister.
Imagine living a hundred years ago with your entire family, possibly your grandparents, too, or an aunt and uncle and even a paid boarder, in a narrow apartment the size of just one or two rooms in your home today. An apartment up five flights of stairs in pitch-dark hallways. An apartment with no running water, no bathroom — just an outhouse five floors down — and no electricity.
In New York City in the late 1800s and early 1900s, tens of thousands of immigrant children grew up in apartments like that in buildings known as tenement houses. Today visitors to New York can tour a restored tenement house and get an idea of what life was like for the children and their families.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street was home to 7,000 immigrants from 20 countries between 1863 and 1935. The building had 20 apartments, each with just one window and about 325 square feet of living space.
In a book about immigrant children in New York, called Immigrant Kids, Russell Freedman describes the conditions. “Five or six people might sleep in one crowded room. Children were commonly tucked three and four to a bed. On hot summer nights, the stifling tenement rooms became unbearable.”
Families would try to find relief from the heat on the roof or the streets, and adventurous children would make sleeping tents of bed sheets on the buildings’ fire escapes.
Even though their living areas were so tiny, many immigrants had to use their space for work, too. As the author describes, “Tenement apartments became busy workshops where entire families labored seven days a week sewing clothing, making artificial flowers, rolling cigars, shelling nuts and performing other low-paying tasks. Children worked alongside their parents from the time they were old enough to follow directions.”
The neighborhood around the Orchard Street tenement house was filled with similar buildings. It was the most densely populated area in New York City in 1903, with more than 2,200 people, 450 families, on one block alone.
In 1901, the Tenement House Act in New York began to make landlords put toilets, light and ventilation in their buildings and required new buildings to be wider. Landlords bitterly fought the law. Ultimately, they either made the changes or closed down their tenements.
Lighting was a big issue for residents. Hallways had no light at all and people injured themselves by tripping on buckled floorboards or holes in the floor. Even worse, one resident who testified before Tenement House Committee in 1900 said, “One tumbles over human obstacles and other obstacles, especially little children.”
What’s remarkable about the tenements at 97 Orchard Street is the care the residents took with their apartments. In spite of the cramped space and lack of light, fresh water and other things we take for granted today, many residents kept their apartments clean and neat. They displayed pictures and keepsakes, and put up pretty wallpaper and curtains, to turn the drab space into a warm home.
If you visit the museum, you’ll get to walk through three apartments that have been restored with the furniture, clothing, dishes and other belongings of the families who lived there. You’ll learn about each family’s history and heritage and get to hear part of a taped interview with a woman who lived in the house as a child.
“In the back room, my brother and I slept on a folding bed,” Josephine Baldizzi said. “I slept at one end, my brother at the other.” Crowded as it was, they had a lot of fun.
“We had a trunk. It became our stage,” she said. “Whatever movie came out, we were acting and singing it. Rita (a neighbor) would come down and we would fight over who would be Claudette Colbert.”
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers guided tours every half hour between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and every 20 minutes from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tours last one hour, 15 minutes and cost $9 for adults and $7 for students and seniors. Only 15 people can be accommodated per tour, and they sell out quickly. The museum visitors’ center, at 90 Orchard Street is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tour tickets can be purchased there the day of your visit or are available in advance online or by telephone at (800) 965-4827. For ticket information and other questions about the museum, go to its website at www.tenement.org.