Michael Adlerstein, Associate Regional Director
National Park Service

The integrity of the tenement at 97 Orchard Street is virtually intact...About 20,000 similar tenements were constructed in New York in the year between 1860 and 1879 alone. Not many survive today and virtually none in such original condition. Within the context of its immediate neighborhood, 97 Orchard Street forms a vital part of a backdrop against which the drama of assimilation was played out.