Visiting the Tenement Museum in New York City

New York has no shortage of museums and many of them are large, glamorous, world-famous sites like the Met or the Guggenheim. But if you’re looking for something more intimate, more personal or a little off the beaten path, consider visiting the Tenement Museum in Manhattan’s Lower East Side (LES).

The Tenement Museum is a literal walk through history. The LES has been a haven for immigrants since the 19^th century and has seen every wave of arrivals from the Irish, Germans and Eastern European Jews of the late 1800s and early 1900s, to the Latinx and Asian American families of the 60s and 70s. The museum bought two tenement buildings that had housed generations of immigrants on the Lower East Side and turned them into a museum. Each floor or apartment showcases a different era in the life of the neighborhood.

Our family has traveled to New York many times, but for some reason we didn’t discover this unique museum experience until our most recent trip.

Quick Tips for visiting the Tenement Museum:

• Plan your day around this visit – choose a place to eat and other sites in the area so you’re not going to the LES just for this museum. (More tips on this later)
• Consider going more than once – each tour is different.
• Look up the tours online first, so you can plan your timing around the tour of your choice.
• Don’t miss the gift shop. (Not kidding – it’s amazing!)
• This museum is age appropriate for everyone but would probably be a bit hard to understand for kids under 8 or so.

Getting to the Tenement Museum:

Located on the Lower East side, the museum is easily accessible by public transportation. There are subway stops at Delancey Street and Essex Street, both of which are just a few blocks from the museum. If for some reason you have to drive, there is no public parking. You would have to find street parking, which is difficult in this neighborhood.

If you happen to be in Soho, Chinatown or Little Italy, the Lower East Side is an easy walk from all these neighborhoods.

What to do at the Tenement Museum:

This museum is not one that you pay an admission to and wander around, self-guided. There are many tours to choose from, and I highly suggest looking at them ahead of time on the museum’s website, to see which tours appeal to you.

The building tours focus on specific immigrant groups and families. These tours are inside, the groups are pretty small, and you will visit several rooms in the tenement. It’s quite an experience to sit in a room and learn about the family that lived there a hundred years ago. The rooms are historically accurate, and the tour guides share artifacts and historical records about the people and the time period.

The neighborhood tours are outside and cover specific historical aspects of the neighborhood. For example, there is a “Reclaiming Black Spaces” tour that focuses on the African American residents and organizations of the Lower East Side.

Why should we visit the Tenement Museum?

I have so many reasons for this, but I’ll just pick a few:

• It’s unlike most museums in Manhattan.
• It’s a great family experience and a wonderful way for kids, or anyone, to make real connections to the past.
• It gives the visitor insight into the people that built this amazing city.
• It offers a culturally diverse experience.
• It’s located in a fabulous neighborhood with lots more to offer.

What to do nearby the Tenement Museum:

Ah… the Lower East Side. This gem of a neighborhood is gritty, funky, fancy and incredibly diverse. You can get artisanal cheeses, eat at the When Harry Met Sally deli, shop in tiny boutiques, admire the street art and a million other things.

Here are my suggestions, but I’d love for you to leave more ideas in the comments!

Katz’s Deli:

This is a must for first-timers to the neighborhood, and a great lunch choice when visiting the Tenement Museum. Yes, it’s the same deli from the famous (infamous?) Meg Ryan scene in When Harry Met Sally. But it’s also a fun experience and delicious food. I’m not a pastrami gal, I always go for the corned beef. Except here! The pastrami is to die for but come hungry – you will get a mountain of food.

Essex Market:

Just a few blocks from the Tenement Museum is an indoor market place full of food stalls and vendors selling everything from specialty foods to souvenirs and jewelry. Serving the community for over a century, Essex Market is the place to experience local artisanal products.

Boutique Shopping:

Whether you’re looking for vintage finds or high-end merchandise, you’re sure to find it in the LES. All the streets around the Tenement Museum, between Delancey and Houston, have cute shops for clothes, curiosities, souvenirs, stationery, accessories and just about anything else.

Exploring the nearby neighborhoods:

The Tenement Museum is just a short walk from Chinatown, Little Italy and Soho. In fact, you can walk through all of these neighborhoods in a couple of hours. If you’re making a day of it, start at the museum, eat lunch, then stroll through the neighborhoods for shopping and site-seeing.

Visiting the Tenement Museum is an obvious choice for history buffs, but I believe its interest is far wider than that. Anyone who wants to know more about this amazing city, its inhabitants and how the neighborhoods were built will appreciate any one of the many tours the Tenement Museum has to offer.