After a year-long preservation project, our historic 97 Orchard Street tenement has begun a phased reopening, with new tours launching through the fall. Learn more about the reopening and how to book your tickets for the new tours back inside our National Historic Landmark, 97 Orchard Street!
Preserving 97 Orchard Street
Thanks to our visitors and supporters, 97 Orchard Street’s grand reopening comes after a once-in-a-lifetime construction project meant to strengthen the 160-year-old building and preserve it for generations to come.
We’ve successfully reinforced key interior structures, repointed and repaired the brick of the historic façade, installed an HVAC system delivering passive air through the 1905 air shafts, installed specifically designed historic windows that include state-of-the-art UV filtration to help preserve our recreated apartments, and opened the 5th floor of the building for the first time in the Museum’s history for our newest permanent exhibit.
While under construction, we’ve continued to tell the stories of our 97 Orchard families by temporarily moving their apartment exhibits, affectionately dubbed “the sublets”, inside of our second historic tenement building at 103 Orchard Street.
As the finishing touches are laid in on construction at 97 Orchard Street, most of our 97 Orchard families have already moved back home.
So, what comes next?
New tours, of course! We’re relaunching our tours with a fresh twist (and some brand-new tours, too!). Get your tickets now and be among the first to visit 97 Orchard Street again!
Tenement Apartment Tour
After the Famine: 1869
What makes someone feel like they belong? Visit the home of Joseph and Bridget Moore, Irish Catholic immigrants who grew up during the years of the Irish famine, and arrived in a rapidly changing, post-Civil War New York City.
Tenement Apartment Tour
Family Owned
Explore the importance of tenement small businesses through the stories of Schneider’s saloon, opened by a married couple during the height of the Civil War, and an auction house, inherited by Max Marcus during the Great Depression.
Tenement Apartment Tour
Under One Roof
Explore the stories of the Rogarshevskys and the Baldizzis, a Jewish family and an Italian family who became neighbors in 97 Orchard during a critical time in New York City history.
And who can forget our new exhibit coming soon? Finally exploring the never-before-seen 5th floor of the building will be a new permanent apartment exhibit telling the story of Joseph and Rachel Moore, Black New Yorkers who made their home in Lower Manhattan tenements in the 1860s. Visitors will experience the exhibit through a new 60-minute guided tour, A Union of Hope: 1869, launching December 1st!
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Learn more about the project
Get a look behind the scenes! Learn about the research on our new Joseph and Rachel Moore exhibit and tour, A Union of Hope: 1869, and watch how our curatorial and facilities teams recreated the Baldizzi’s sublet at 103 Orchard Street, and more!
Our Supporters
The preservation of our historic landmark tenement at 97 Orchard Street is being made possible by Acton Family Giving, American Express, the City of New York, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, The Felicia Fund, the Preservation League of NYS, Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, the Zegar Family Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Our new Joseph and Rachel Moore exhibit is being made possible by the City of New York, The Hearst Foundations, the Mellon Foundation, the Zegar Family Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
Support the Museum
Make a gift today and help ensure that generations to come will continue to build knowledge, connection, and empathy through our tenement stories!