The Tenement Museum's mission is "to promote tolerance and historical perspective through the presentation and interpretation of the variety of immigrant and migrant experiences on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a gateway to America."
The heart of the Museum is the tenement at 97 Orchard Street. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, 97 Orchard was home to an estimated 7,000 people from over 20 nations from 1863 to 1935. In 1998, President Clinton and the United States Congress designated the Museum a National Historic Area affiliated with the National Park Service. 97 Orchard Street had been named a National Historic Landmark and a featured property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Visitors to the Tenement Museum tour carefully restored tenement apartments and learn about the lives of actual past residents: the Gumpertz family, German Jews (1870s), the Rogarshevsky family, Eastern European Jews (1900s), the Baldizzi family, Italian Catholics (1930s), and the Moores, Irish Catholics (1860s). A living history program for children and families focuses on the Confinos, Sephardic Jews from Turkey (1916).
Please note that all tours begin at the Visitors Center & Tenement Shop located at 103 Orchard Street (between Delancey & Broome Streets).