a unified country, where the federal government and the aates were partners in relationship that enabled the federal government to play a leading role in binding the country together through infrastructure projects, through and soing manufacturer on, that he was deeply suspected by the southern states who thought indeed that he wanted to themuch power form -- from federal government. >> the life of our six president, john quincy adams. sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on "q and a." each week, american history tv's american artifacts features museums and historic places. fortresswe visit 97 street in new york city to see how immigrants dealt with tenements in the >> i am kira

1930's. garcia. i work at the lower east side tenement museum in new york city. we are going to look at our historical tenement building, which was built in 1863. about 7000 immigrants lived here between 1863 and 1935. what you see around you is a mix of original architectural detail and some things that came later in the building's history. throughout the years, our building changed over time. in the year it was built, there were virtually no housing laws on the book yet, here in new york city. the gentleman who built this, a german immigrant called lucas lautner, was basically working on his own, putting together a building he would see fit to live in, and did live here in the early years with his family. but as compared to what we are used to today, it was a pretty difficult place to live.

there was no source of interior light. there was no running water, no plumbing, no toilets, sinks, showers, or tubs. and there was not a designated number of windows. we are going to take a closer look at that when we go upstairs, and look at a few re-created homes where immigrant families lived. some of the things you see in your entry hall are evidence of how the building aged over time. for example, some decorative touches like painting on the wall was added after the building gets interior light. once you can maneuver your way through the hallway, with the added benefit of overhead light, the landlord begins to be interested in dressing the place up and making it look a little more beautiful. the wallcoverings are burlap. they are simulated leather. which was a luxurious wallcovering that was popular at

the time. we also see these painted panels on the wall. they are in ornate plaster frames. you can see the original bright colors. the other has not been restored. we did this to show you the difference between before and after. what did the many years due to toyears of neglect to -- do the interior of the building? between 1935 and 1988, when the building opens up, this is basically abandoned. there is basically no activity in this building. it is left alone. when the museum founders come along in 1988 they opened the , door to essentially a time capsule that's standing in new york city for decades. some of what we show to visitors are re-created apartments that represent different time periods in the building's history. others have been left as a

record of that decay and neglect. some of what you see around you is original to the building's construction in 1863. this handrail is one of those things. every resident of this building, all 7000 of them, used the same handrail. here we are in one of the museum's ruined apartments. we leave some of the apartments as we found them to show the layers of change that happens to the building over time. visitors sometimes ask why we do not recreate every apartment throughout the building. that is a good question. part of why we do not do that is that there are clues left behind in some of these apartments that show us how people lived here, what they were doing, how they were thinking, how they changed the building over time. there is a great one right over here. on this doorframe, you see a list.

there are numbers and garments and checkmarks. what our museum historians have surmised is that the merchants who were doing business on the ground floor in this building were using abandoned apartments to store garments in the off-season. the lower east side was long known as the bargain district. in particular, it was a great place to find bargains on clothing. many people manufactured clothes and sold clothes on the lower east side over the years. this is evidence of that. here we are in what was once the home of a jewish family from a part of the world which is now greece.

they lived in this apartment, which is about three rooms, 125 -- 325 square feet, with 10 family members. two adults and eight children of varying ages. what is special about this apartment is that visitors see this apartment through the eyes of a young woman who lived here, victoria. they experience this through the magic of costumed interpretation. trained actresses portray victoria and guide visitors through this space, and describe what life was like for early immigrants at 97 orchard street. we put together information from a lot of different sources. much of it is based on public records, censuses, phone directories, that sort of thing. but we also get generous information from the descendents of people who lived in this building. the descendents of the young

woman portrayed on this tour very graciously and kindly helped us understand what her life was like, what her personality was like, and even have provided us with images of the family. that, of course, has been really important to us. in the early 20th century, the family would have enjoyed a few amenities which were relatively new, including gaslight and running water. as you can see, they enjoyed a sink. they had a bathtub, albeit right here in the kitchen. there was not a great deal of privacy, but there was running water. they would have cooked using a coal-burning stove, like this one. these amenities represented a tremendous improvement on the way earlier residents had lived. when this building was originally built -- there is not much in the way of housing regulation in those days.

landlords kind of presented a building as it was. there is not much to tell them legally what they could and could not do with the amenities they were forced to provide to their tenants. everyone was kind of on their own. flash forward to the early 20th century, and the tenement house act has changed that. these lovely new amenities the family would have enjoyed did not come about magically overnight. this is a long-fought battle that goes all the way to the supreme court before tenement residents can enjoy interior light and running water, and flushing toilets in the hall as well. the tenement house act is a culmination of activism on the part of middle-class reformers, who start to understand how tenement residents are living. and the sometimes deplorable conditions of tenement living.

through photographs -- through photographs of people like jacob riis, which are well-known today. they are very important historic documents. when people understand for tenements arethat responsible for high infant mortality rates, people begin to feel something must be done. ultimately, we get the legislation that enforces the change and improves the health and lifespan of people who live in buildings like this one. in an apartment this small, with a family as big as this was, the notion of defined spaces for sleeping and eating and cooking go out the window. the contemporary idea that you sleep in a bedroom, and that is the only place to sleep, does not apply to this scenario.

to fit 10 people into a 125 square foot apartment, you have to put people in every room. victoria may have slept in the kitchen, which might have been warmer in the winter. her brothers and cousins may have slept here. tenement residents wrote about improvising sleeping locations. whether that was stacking up a couple of fruit crates, throwing a blanket on top, and calling it a bed for a small child, or sleeping head to toe in a twin bed. there were all kinds of ways to fit families into these tiny spaces. you will see the improvised fruit crate bed toward the back of the room, and a simple iron bed on the other side, which likely would have been shared by two children. we have re-created different wallpaper patterns we have found

throughout the building, to create a historically accurate look of the early 20th century. after the passage of the tenement house act this building , gets windows in every room. these are required by law. this window into a bedroom happens to face a common hallway. it delineates private space from public space. the bars are for security. the security would have been important in particular because it was such a busy ill then, so -- busy building. so many people moving in and out. the front door would not necessarily have been locked during the day. you probably wanted extra security, just to make sure not everybody is climbing through the window into your bedroom. when our tenement building gets

interior plumbing, it does not look anything like we are used to today. this is still very humble. it is not necessarily a facility you would be excited to use. it represents a tremendous improvement over the privies in the backyard, which residents were using before the installation of these toilets. we are now in the kitchen of nathalie and julius gumpertz, who immigrated from what is now germany. as german-speaking immigrants, they would have been attracted to this neighborhood because during the 1870's, this neighborhood was not known as the lower east side. it was known as little germany. it is one of the first ethnic enclaves where immigrants create an intentional community because they share the same mind which -- the same language and

culture. they lived here in this apartment with three daughters -- rosa, olga, and nanny, and a young son who unfortunately died in infancy, which was not uncommon at all in those days. julius was a shoemaker. he went out every day to make enough money to pay the rent, which was about $10 at the time. his wife was not necessarily earning a paycheck but definitely was earning her keep. she was a hard-working woman. she would have been firing up the stove to cook the family dinner. she would have been bringing up every drop of water to clean and cook from a spigot in the backyard. she must've been a strong woman to haul all about that water and coal every day, not to mention having 4 children in quick succession. they're both pretty busy and both are keeping themselves afloat, keeping food on the table.

this is a time of relative economic prosperity. people were feeling confident after the american civil war, but all of that changes. economic circumstances change drastically until we begin to see a series of panics, which create joblessness, runs on the bank, they create this sort of economic chaos which in particular impacts working class folks. at one point, julius gets up, 1874, has breakfast, goes out to work, and never returns again, effectively abandoning his family or otherwise disappearing, leaving natalie along with small children to raise and no source of income. nathalie is in a tough spot. withs all on her own

young children to raise and no paycheck coming in anymore. she is left with a few options. there are a few forms of rudimentary public assistance available. more likely, she would've turned immediately to her community, the close-knit community of immigrants who rely on each other during difficult times. she probably would have asked for help from john and caroline schneider, german-speaking immigrants who ran the saloon on the ground floor of this building, schneider's saloon. nathalie sets herself up as a seamstress, making individual garments for clients, one by one. this is before the days of large-scale clothing factories that we would begin to see a few decades later. ultimately, nathalie is making as much or more money than her husband was.

this was the best paying the jennet profession a woman could enter into. her story is a success story. her daughters grow up and have children of their own. many of their descendents still live here in the new york city area. by the time nathalie has moved on from 97 orchard street, a lot has changed. it is no longer kleine deutscheland. we are starting to have more immigrants from eastern europe and italy. here's more evidence of how the building changed over time. you see this dark stripe across the ceiling. this is where the wall between the parlor and the kitchen was when we come along in 1988. but according to blueprints, this is not historically accurate. originally, the kitchen wall would have been where it is now, right there. we moved the wall back to what the apartment would have looked

like authentically in the when 1870's the gumpertz family was living here. here we are in the baldizzi family home. we have taken a leap forward to about 1935. you will see that in all of the wonderful amenities the family would have enjoyed. by 1935, the building had electricity. they were able to listen to the radio. they had electric lights. and a gas cook top, which is installed on top of the old coal burning stove. and a sink and a bathtub, right here. we see the bathtub here in the kitchen, which is typical of tenements in those days.

the baldizzi family immigrates after the establishment of ellis island. compared to the gumpertz family, the baldizzi family had a lot of more bureaucracy in the immigration process, including the united states' immigration quotas on the books in those days. these quotas dictated the number of immigrants allowed to come here to the united states based on nationality. there are fewer italians allowed in then immigrants from other countries, and the family knew this. the immigration quotas, which the united states government was using in those days, were based in part of what we would consider a pseudoscience called eugenics, which is a theory that not all human beings are inherently genetically equal. some people from some parts of the world are inherently superior to others. when adolpho baldizzi was prepared to immigrate, he was worried his wife would not be

able to follow him if she went through proper legal channels. the family does not know for certain how rosaria eventually ends up in the united states, but to the best of our understanding, she works around the system. we talk about this with visitors, to think more clearly about how immigration is discussed in the present day. because rosario's story is in many ways similar to those of present-day immigrants. we like to put faces to names. we share family photos of the baldizzis to illustrate our tours. as is rosario, the family matriarch. rosario and adolpho lived with their children, josephine and johnny.

josephine plays a special role in this museum, the cubs later -- because later in life she discovered the tenement museum. i always thing that must've been so strange for her, to see that her childhood home had become a museum and a tourist attraction. fortunately, she was really excited about the museum, and shared her memories with us. i have some audios of her memory of living here. >> i remember sitting around the table in the kitchen, under the window. my mother would have made as a fried egg or something, on a roll with butter. italian music, the radio always playing. italian music, italian soap operas, and my mother crying all the time. she used to miss her family. she left her whole family in italy, came here as a young girl, and never saw them again. for many many years. she'd never saw her father or

her mother again. ♪ >> the moores were some of the building's earliest residents. they made their way here in 1869. the moore family share this apartment with her three daughters, mary, jane, and agnes. baby agnes was just a few months old when the moore family arrived here. as you can see around you, the moore family had a very simple home. the building was relatively new during the time they lived here. and in fact might have been more desirable than the circumstances some other irish immigrants

lived in during those days. bridget moore would've been keeping house, just like nathalie gumpertz, trying to keep her children healthy. her husband is going out to work. we are talking about some of the discrimination and hardships irish immigrants faced specifically in those days. of course, discrimination in the job market was a particular hardship. joseph moore certainly grappled with that. according to records, he worked variously as a bartender and a waiter. he probably would've been able to bring some leftover food at the end of the shift to supplement whatever it was that bridget had found to feed the family. another issue we talk about in our discussions is infant

mortality. infant mortality rates were incredibly high in those days. and sadly, the moore family did lose their infant daughter, agnes, during the time living here. the cause was multiple conditions, but ultimately malnutrition played a very serious role in her illness. malnutrition was a problem which contributed significantly to the infant mortality rate in those days. here in the parlor, we have re-created what the wake would have looked like for baby agnes after her passing. this was an incredibly sad time for the moore family, but also a social moment, a term for the community to gather together. there are a couple of important catholic traditions we have re-created here to show what the wake would have looked like. one was to cover the mirrors, to

encourage humility or discourage vanity. we also open the window on days when it is not quite as cold as it is today, which was a tradition at a wake meant to set the soul free. this apartment, which was the home of harris and jenny levine and their children, also served as a sweatshop, a small garment factory. you see the tools of the trade. during the late 19th century, garments were still being made predominantly in small apartments like this one. this space was incredibly busy. it would have been noisy. filled with the sound of the sewing machine and the busy street outside. the levine family would have worked almost incessantly, to make as much money as they possibly could.

we tell the story of life in this apartment as an ongoing, incredibly busy, vibrant, bustling experience. very likely, when jenny gave birth to her son, which she did right here, work would not have stopped in the front room of the sweatshop, because it was that critical to family survival. this apartment was a home in the first decade of the 20th century. we see around us some of the amenities which were brought to the building by the tenement house act in about 1905 or 1906. they would've enjoyed gaslight and a gas cook top. and of course running water. the family was also in the garment industry. by the time they get involved,

we begin to see garment manufacturing on a larger scale. instead of sewing at home, they would have gone to work in garment factories. this building ultimately closes in 1935 because another piece of legislation is passed, requiring that the interior stairwells and buildings like this one be are proofed, which would have meant tearing the whole stairwell out and rebuilding it out of stone or metal, each would have been a huge expense, rather than bring the building up to code the landlord decided to evict the tenants. commercial tenants were allowed to stay. the law did not apply to them. but after 1935, the building is no longer a residence. part of what makes the tenement museum unique is that every visitor has a very lively experience here.

we try not to just give a lecture. we try to have a conversation with our visitors. because the stories are everyone's stories, they are very relatable. often, visitors will chime in and share a story of their grandmother or their aunt. something sparks a memory they want to share. that is one of the most valuable experiences for us here at the museum. it is a dialogic experience. it goes both ways. we want to hear from visitors as much as we want to share with them. it is a wonderful place not just to learn about history, but to see how lives were lived in the past. and really become immersed in the past experiences of our ancestors. part of what makes this building so special is that it is so ordinary. it is a very typical place where thousands of people started new lives.

there are many buildings just like this, throughout new york city and throughout the country. it is incredibly important that places like this are preserved, because they are the sites of shared memory. these are the places where our grandparents, our great-grandparents, our ancestors began new lives here in america. >> learn more about the tenement museum at tenement.org. you can view this and all c-span programs at c-span.org. the search engine to browse topics like tenement. july 20 marks the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. veteran nbc space correspondent

jay barberie on the life of the first man to walk on the moon, neil armstrong tonight at 10:00 eastern on c-span 2's "afterwords." --american tv's history series the civil war marks the 150th anniversary of the conflict by bringing lectures and that of field visits. 1864,ars ago in july of 100 confederate troops almost invaded washington, d.c.. the mark leeson takes us on a tour of battlefields in washington dc to tell the story of a battle where confederates ine delayed by union forces the battle of fort stevens.