Gheesh...it makes me tired just WRITING ABOUT this day. By the time we got to Katz's Deli, we were starving.
Our third "ticketed event" of the day was the Tenement Museum.
Over the years, you have read many of my various NEW YORK CITY blog posts...but you rarely see mention of an actual "Museum visit". Even though New York City has many world-class museums -- my visits to this beautiful city are just too brief. Most of the time, I only have three or four days -- and the people I'm with want to see the "highlights". So Museums just don't make the cut...
Don't get me wrong. I know what they're missing. I have been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, and the Guggenheim. I have even ventured into the Whitney, the Frick Museum and the American Folk Art Museum. But, if I'm being honest -- most of them are way over my head. I don't have a big appreciation for art -- or artifacts -- also, I'm afraid I have a limited attention span...
But -- this place is different.
On this day -- Monday, April 8, 2019, I was taking Jackie and my nieces Amy and Nicole to the best Museum I've ever been to. Really. It's THAT good...
The Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street (on the lower East Side) is a very unique place.
For over 100 years, it housed thousands of immigrants landing in New York City...but, in 1935, it was abandoned. And it stood -- empty and dilapidated -- for over 50 years.
When they opened it up -- the tiny apartments inside this building were like time capsules...
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| In the dark entrance and first floor hall -- you can imagine the hustle and bustle of that earlier time. |
There are several "apartment tours" to choose from. The best thing about a Tenement Museum tour is they are small groups (10 people) -- led by a real person "docent". I chose the "Sweatshop Workers" tour.
Here's the description, from their website:
The Garment Trade and the Immigrant Experience Immigrant garment workers past and present have many experiences in common. They all share the memories of long hours hunched over sewing machines, the hiss and heat of pressing irons, and the goal of making a better life.
The Levines and Rogarshevskys, like many immigrants of their time, found a livelihood in the garment trade, New York’s largest industry. The Levines operated a garment workshop in their tiny apartment at 97 Orchard in 1892.
Harris Levine, the patriarch, hired three workers and worked long 15-hour days, stopping only to observe the Sabbath each Saturday. A family of six, the Levines managed to raise their children and compete with other garment shops for 13 years — and all within a 325-square-foot apartment.
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| It is hard to imagine a large family living in this tiny apartment, AND running a sweatshop in the same space... |
The Rogarshevkys faced a similar living challenge in 1908. With six children, the Rogarshevskys creatively squeezed into their tiny three-room apartment at 97 Orchard Street. The patriarch, Abraham, earned a living as a garment presser in one of the neighborhood shops. It was a job that would take a tremendous toll both on Abraham and his family.
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Standing in that cramped little apartment...in the very spot where those immigrants lived and worked. I thought about how terrified they would have been...coming to America was like landing on the Moon. Was it brave? Or desperate?
Taking that giant leap of faith...to this unknown world...the sacrifices those families made...going to a foreign country, where you didn't speak the language. Living in a tiny squalid 300 sq. ft apartment with a dozen other people...working for pennies...all for the hope that your children would have a better life.
Most of us came from those humble beginnings...but it's an easy thing to forget.
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