We are open 7 days a week from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm!
All visitors, including children over the age of 12, attending tours inside the Tenement Museum’s historic buildings will need to show proof of full vaccination prior to their scheduled visit.
While not permitted on building tours, children under the age of 12 are welcome inside our Shop, Visitor Center, and Theater — as well as our walking tours and Meet Victoria: 1916. More details are included below.
We are also currently offering weekly Virtual Tenement Tours!
Where other museums might have in their collections priceless paintings, significant biological specimens, or paperwork belonging to some very important people, here at the Tenement Museum we have: stuff. Spools of thread. A bottle of shampoo. A deck of playing cards. Scraps of a love letter. Discover what makes ours one of the most unique collections in the world.
Explore historically restored tenement buildings and discover how immigrants lived on New York’s Lower East Side in the 19th and 20th centuries. Along with a glimpse of the past, glean insights from educators who offer historical perspectives that relate to current conversations about immigration.
Get to know the city by visiting historical sites and learning about the people and neighborhoods of the Lower East Side through our walking tours. Tours are available for both individual ticket holders or private groups.
During live, online tours, our Educators take you into the historically restored apartments using pre-recorded video, audio and images, and share stories of a family who lived in our historic buildings in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Host a private virtual event with the Tenement Museum! Your guests will interact with experts, educators, or costumed interpreters, and be guided through the recreated spaces of our historic tenement buildings and the lives of the families who lived there, using videos, archival images, and oral histories.
Explore our schedule of weekly free virtual events on Youtube Live, and purchase tickets to our virtual tours. You can view video recordings of past virtual live events.
The Tenement Museum’s virtual school programs offer your class a chance to “visit” our recreated apartments from anywhere in the world. Our Educators take students into the building and apartments using pre-recorded video, 360° images, and primary sources to share stories of the families who lived in our historic buildings.
What’s the Tenement Museum planning next?
Get a sneak peek of our new permanent exhibit exploring Black history in Lower Manhattan and a behind-the-scenes look at the ongoing stabilization of our historic tenement buildings.
Visit the Tenement Museum’s interactive, digital exhibits, which provide a fascinating, in-depth historical look at life on the Lower East Side. Current exhibits include Immigrants Mean Business: An Enduring History of Entrepreneurship, Beyond Statistics: Living in a Pandemic, Tenement Women: Agents of Change, and The Census: Reading Between the Lines.
Explore Tenement Museum resources that may offer inspiration and spark curiosity while students are learning outside the classroom. Virtual field trips are available for you to visit the recreated spaces of our historic building with your class.
The Tenement Museum celebrates the enduring stories that define and strengthen what it means to be American. We share stories of the immigrant and migrant experience through immersive guided tours, educational content and programs, and thought leadership, with one important goal — to advance the understanding of immigration and to highlight its role in the ongoing creation of our nation.
Throughout history and into the present day, millions of people moved to and around the United States in pursuit of the American Dream. While it may at times be easy to see the gaps between “us” and “them,” a closer look reveals how these newest citizens demonstrate the human spirit of our nation’s ideals. And, the understanding that results is that it doesn’t matter why they came; what matters is that they did.