There’s no doubting the number of museums and cultural sites there are in New York City. The whole area is packed full of them. However the most evocative of them all has to be the Tenement Museum in Lower East Side Manhattan. They offer a number of different experiences and we took their Hard Times tour to find out more about the residents that lived in this area through the years.
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About the building
The Tenement Museum is an actual tenement building.
In fact two of them side by side, like so many of the buildings that sit on New York streets today. It housed residents between 1863 and the mid 1930s.
So many people passed through its doors. Bringing their struggles and laughter, their family life and stories with them.
The museum estimates that 15,000 people from over 20 different nations resided in these buildings. They bring alive some of those real stories of these people and with them the tale of both New York City and the United States as it grew and faltered and grew some more.
Tours at the Tenement Museum
There are a number of different tours you can take with the Tenement Museum, including Sweatshop Workers and Irish Outsiders. All of them tell a different story of what city life was like for immigrants coming to the US to attempt to make a better life for themselves and their family.
Tenement Museum Tours – taking the Hard Times tour, New York City
Hard Times tells the story of two different families, the Gumpertzs in the 1870s and the Baldizzi in the 1930s. And as we learnt about them we weaved our way through the building, tip toeing in to their bedrooms, kitchens and lives.
It was wonderful entering the tenement, seeing the peeling wallpaper, the little bits of cornicing in an attempt to make a particularly grim and dingy hallway space feel slightly decorated.
Our guide brought the world of the tenement to life. At the time it was first built and as it changed through the years when electricity came in and various laws that landlords had to adhere to.
To stand in the actual space, this place that so many called home, feel the wooden banister they would have each grasped on to beneath our own hands just brought these people to life.
We creaked up the stairs. Our small group all together learning about the past in the most tangible way possible.
The Gumpertz family
We started with the Gumpertz family and their lives here in the building we stood in.
We headed to their bedroom at the front of the building to learn about how Nathalie and Julius came separately to the US from Prussia in 1850s.
How they would live here in this apartment together in the 1870s, trying to make ends meet now as a married couple with four children.
Times were hard in the 1870s and when The Panic struck in 1873 times became even harder.
With a new baby Julius left one day for work, never to return.
I won’t spoil the tales you learn on this amazing tour but the community love and the indomitable spirit of an immigrant woman, forced to go it alone, is something that you can almost feel as you stand in her home a century and a half later.
The Baldizzi family
We also learn about the Baldizzi family who faced the crash of 1929, which forced America in to yet another Great Depression.
With actual testament in the form of the Baldizzi’s daughter Josephine, the apartment has been faithfully reconstructed and the smallest of details bring back a life and a family that resided here.
We all absolutely loved our time in the Tenement Museum.
As soon as the tour was over I wanted to take another to learn about different residents.
I love history and the museum works so well at bringing alive times that are now passed.
If you’re in New York City definitely consider adding it to your itinerary, you won’t be disappointed.
Frequently asked questions – Tenement Museum Tours – taking the Hard Times tour, New York City
Is the Tenement Museum good for children?
The Tenement Museum is definitely child friendly although they state it is for children seven and over which I would say is about right. There are certain places not to touch the walls and time taken to sit and listen to the stories. My children (the youngest at seven and the oldest at 12) were captivated by the tales of life in the building and the children in particular who would have lived there. If you are visiting New York City with children seven and older I would definitely recommend it for kids.
How long are the tours at the Tenement Museum?
Our tour took around an hour and a half which is fairly typical. They suggest that the majority will take between one and wo hours.
What even is a tenement building?
A tenement is a series of apartments in one building. The Tenement House Act of 1867 defined a tenement as a building which is rented out to more than three families living independently from one another.
Read more about the Tenement Museum here.
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Wow! I’ve always wanted to go to the Tenement museum and reading this has made me even more determined to get back to NYC. I love the idea of all of the different family stories!
I hope you make it back there soon, I absolutely love this place!