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FOUNDING A GROUNDBREAKING MUSEUM
When historian and social activist, Ruth Abram wanted to build a museum that honored America's immigrants, New York's tenements were the perfect place. These humble, multiple family dwellings were the first American homes for immigrants seeking a place to live and raise their families. After a long and frustrating search and just about ready to give up, she and co-founder Anita Jacobson stumbled upon the tenement at 97 Orchard Street.
This humble tenement was built in 1863 by a German tailor named Lucas Glockner with his two partners who also built two other tenements on either end. 97 Orchard Street housed almost 7,000 immigrants from 20 nations until 1935, but at the time they had no idea of it's significance since what initially appealed to them was a storefront that they planned to rent out for tours around the Lower East Side. While searching the property for a bathroom, Anita entered a time capsule, as she walked through a hallway, she discovered turn of the century toilets, an aging wood banister, and sheet metal ceilings. "It was though people just picked up and left'' she claimed.
In actuality it was the truth. For over 50 years the apartments were abandoned and in ruin. It would take time to research and revive the history of the walls within. Undaunted by the task at hand, researchers searched archives and scavenged through the building for information and artifacts about tenants and tenement life during the 19th century. After several years of research, the group began the difficult task of restoring apartments that had been vacant for half a century. The first to be restored was the 1878 home of German-Jewish immigrants, the Gumpertz family and was opened for tours in 1992. Since then, six apartments have been carefully restored, including the Moores apartment, home to Irish immigrants who lived their in 1869.
ARTIFACTS AND THE STORY THEY TELL
The museum gives visitors a unique view of life in New York City during the 19th century through collections of artifacts. Many of which were discovered on the site itself. The tenement has changed from the time in 1863 when it was built. One example is the change from outhouses to indoor bathrooms.
In 1863, there were three to six outhouses in the backyard. It may sound primitive today, but outdoor toilets were the norm in 19th-century tenements. In fact, there were no laws governing toilets or any other aspect of tenement construction until the 1867 Tenement House Act. Yet these outhouses were sophisticated for the time: they were connected to a common waste vault and even included a sluicing system for flushing waste into a public sewer line. After all New York did not require indoor toilets until 1901 and that was quite sometime after the tenement was built. In 1905, 97 Orchard was installed with indoor toilets adhering to law that mandated there would be one toilet per two apartments. They were placed in the hallways of each floor which still remain today and this was due to the fact that there were no residents remaining at the time that the law mandated that toilets be installed in each apartment.
Another example of early tenement life in New York was lighting. In fact there was none. Dwellers of 97 Orchard did not have the luxury of flicking a switch to illuminate hallways or rooms. Tenements were a dark place. Only the parlor rooms had exterior windows. There was originally no gas light or electricity. Residents relied on kerosene or oil lamps to light the way. I don't know about you, but that is the equivalent of struggling to get by your everyday responsibilities in an eternal blackout. It doesn't sound fun at all. Gas lighting was added to the tenement sometime between 1896 and 1905, possibly to comply with the Tenement House Act of 1901, which required a light source on every floor of the public hallway from sunset to sunrise. Tenants paid for gas individually, through a coin-operated gas meter in the kitchen of their apartments. Although the "electric illuminating system" was invented in 1882 by Thomas Edison, the tenement wasn’t electrified until sometime after 1918. One resident remembers that electricity was connected in 1924, the year he started kindergarten.
As if times without indoor toilets and electricity weren't enough to drive a mother raising young children mad. There is always another major commodity that all humans must have to survive. That commodity would be clean water for cooking, drinking, cleaning, and bathing. In the 1860s most New York City residents drank, bathed, and cooked with water from upstate New York, delivered via the Croton Aqueduct. The tenement's early tenants drew water from a spigot in the backyard, located near the outdoor toilets. Women washed clothes near backyard water pumps, an easier task than carrying water upstairs to do laundry in their apartment. Running water was installed in 97 Orchard Street some time around 1895, allowing families to access water in their own apartments for the very first time. All of the apartments at first only had cold water, but after gas was installed around 1905, residents could purchase individual, gas-powered water heaters, which warmed limited amounts of water for bathing or washing.
Now if any of you have lived in New York or a region where temperatures go below 32 degrees, I'm sure you can understand how important a good source of heating is to a family. In the 1860's 97 Orchard Street’s apartments originally had working fireplaces in the kitchens and parlors. By the late 1880s, the parlor fireplaces were sealed. I can't see why they would be, but I suppose there is always a reason behind an action. Each family had a coal stove in their kitchen, which they used for cooking, heating irons, and boiling water. The stove provided more than enough heat, making the fireplace an unnecessary source of drafts in the winter months. This would be why they were sealed since it would serve a better purpose as a decorative feature rather than heating. The idea of every home having a hearth around which the family could gather was a popular notion of that time period and ironically still is today in the modern age where a fireplace is the most requested wish list item for home buyers. By 1905 gas had been installed in the tenement. However, a coal stove was still the residents’ main source of heat.
While excavating the tenement, 2,000 artifacts were discovered ranging from homemade toys to animal bones. What a joy that must have been to hold an item that was held by someone a hundred or more years ago. Researchers also used archival materials such as ship manifest, newspapers, census records, city directories, and personal documents, as well as death certificates to get a better idea of residents in the tenement. Everyone knows that a picture speaks a thousand words and with a vast collection of over a 1,ooo photos of 97 Orchard Street, both as a residence and museum, one can get a clear view of life during a time we didn't exist. Oral history is also another way that the museum acquired information about the tenement and it's residents. Although most of the residents passed away before they could be recorded, stories from family members and descendants were the next best thing. You can even hear the oral history of one resident who lived there between 1928 and 1935 on their website. Treasure hunting through the old tenement must have been so much fun. With so many places to search like the backyard, walls, ceilings, floors, stairs, etc. everyday must have felt like Easter.
The museum offers tours for those of you interested in something to do while visiting New York or those who live in the city and want to occupy your time. They are open everyday except for Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. There is even a gift shop with 30 gifts under $3o. That is a steal in terms of New York shopping. I would also suggest picking up Jane Ziegalman's book about 97 Orchard Street. "Jane Ziegelman tells this story exuberantly... Highly entertaining and deceptively ambitious... Ziegelman adroitly works her way through the decades and her five cuisines. Along the way, there are fascinating diversions..." - William Grimes, New York Times Book Review, August 8, 2010. All the information you need to learn more or go on a tour is available on their website http://www.tenementmuseum.org/ and have a blog here as well http://www.tenement-museum.blogspot.com/ Contributions are also accepted for those who can't make it to the tenement, but still would like to assist in keeping this aging monument alive. After all, this organization teaches over 30,000 children a year. That is a huge accomplishment in an age of video games and computers. Here are some other videos I found on YouTube about this landmark...
I just love that two historians could see a fallen relic's potential to teach others about the struggles immigrants who arrived to the United States faced, while also teaching us that life may be Difficult, but others faced even more adversity and lived to earn a wage and raise a family during a time where modern amenities and comforts didn't exist. I am definitely going to take a few tours while visiting family in the city and urge you history lovers to do the same with your family. The best way to instill love of history in children is to show them just how much history and present times are alike.
ALL THE INFORMATION AND PHOTOS WERE TAKEN FROM THE WEBSITE AND ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE ORGANIZATION. I MAKE NO CLAIM TO OWNERSHIP OF PHOTOS OR VIDEOS IN THIS POSTING.
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