SATURDAY, June 24th - THE TENEMENT MUSEUM

Today, Nancy and I took the F subway from the Bryant Park station and found our way to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum which is located at 90 Orchard Street. There is a fabulous web-site at:
www.tenement.org
that will show you much of what we experienced. Since we knew that we wanted to spend some time here and take all the tours, we became members of this organization. The educator's membership is $40 and it allows you full access to all the tours.

This museum has re-created three turn of the century tenements and a docent took us through and explained how people lived in those days. The tenement house itself was built in 1863 by a German immigrant and had 24 different apartments. From 1863 until it closed in 1935 it housed over 7000 people from over 20 different countries! We saw the re-created apartments of the Gumpertz family and the
Baldacci family.

After the tour, we took the walking tour of the neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was a torrential downpour during our tour. We trudged through though, and saw some beautiful examples of architecture and spent a somewhat dry part of the tour in the neighborhood Essex Market. I have so much to share with you when I get back!