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between the 1860s. we're going to take a look at our historic tenement building built in 1863. 7,000 immigrants lived here between 1863 and 1935. and what you see around you is a mix of original architectural details and some things that came a little bit later in the building's history. throughout the years our buildings changed of course over time. in the year it was built, there were virtually no housing laws on the books yet here in new york city. so the gentleman who built in, a german immigrant named lucas glockner was basically working on his own. so he was kind of putting together a building he would see fit to live in. and in fact he did live here in the building's early years with his family. but as compared to what we're 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, toilets, sinks, showers or tubs, and there were no designated windows in the building. we'll take a closer look at that upstairs and look at a few recreated homes where families lived. some of the things you see around you here in our entry hall are evidence of how the building changed over time. for example, some of these decorative touches like these paintings on the wall were added after the building gets interior light. so once you can kind of maneuver your way through the hallway with the added benefit of overhead light, the landlord also begins to be interested in dressing the place up and making it look a little bit more beautiful. so the wall coverings are burlap. they're simulated leather, actually, which was a very kind of luxurious wall covering that was popular in the time.

and then we also see these painted panels on the wall. and they're in these sort of ornate plaster frames. now, one of these panels has been restored, and you can see its original bright colors. and the other has not. the reason we have done this is to show the difference of course between before and after, right? what did the many years of neglect do to the interior of this billing. and between 1935 and 1988 when the museum opens up, this building is basically abandoned. there's almost no activity in this building. it's just left alone. when the museum's founders come along in 1988, they open the door to what is essentially a time capsule. it's been left standing in new york city for decades. and some of what we showed to visitors are recreated apartments that represent different time periods in the building's history, other apartment haves been left as

they were in 1988 as a record of that decay and neglect. some of what you see around you is original to the building's construction in 1863. and this handrail i'm holding on to right now is one of those things. so every resident of this building, all 7,000 of them use this same handrail. and here we are in one of the museums apartments. we leave some of these apartments as we found them to show the layers of change that happen to the building over time. visitors sometimes ask why we done recreate each and every apartment throughout the building, and that's a very 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, what they were thinking, how they changed the building over time. there's a great one right over here. right here on this door frame,

you see a list. there are numbers and good morning americas and check marks. and what our museums historians have surmised is that the merchants doing business on the ground floor in this building were using abandoned apartments in the off season. long known as a bargain district, the lower east side, it was known as a great place to find bargains on clothing. many people manufactured clothes on the lower east side and sold chloes on the lower east side over the years, so this list is evidence of that. so here we are in what was once the home of the confino family. the confinos were a jewish family from a part of the world which is now greece, they lived here in this apartment, three

rooms, 325 square feet as all of our tenement apartments are. with ten family members. two adults and eight children of varying ages. what's special about this apartment is that visitors see this apartment through the eyes of a young woman who lived here named victoria confino. they experience this through the magic of costumed interpretation. so trained actresses portray victoria confino and they guide visitors through the space and explain what life looked like for early immigrants at 97 orchard street. we put together information from a lot of different sources. so much of it is based on public record, sentences, phone directories, that sort of thing, but we also get information, generous information from the descendents of people who lived in this building. so the descendents of victoria confino, the young woman

portrayed on this tour, 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. so that of course has been really important for us. so in the early 20th century when the confino family lived here, they would have enjoyed a few amenities which were relatively new, including gaslights and running water, so as you can see, the confinos enjoyed a sink, they had a bathtub, i'll be it right here in the kitchen. so there wasn't a great deal of privacy. but there was running water. they would have cooked using a coal, burning stove like this one. these amenities presented a tremendous improvement on the way earlier residents had lived. when the building was originally built, there's really not much in the way of

housing regulation in those days, landlords kind of presented a building as it was and there's not much to tell them legally what they could and could not do or the amenities that they were forced to provide to their tenants. everyone's kind of on their own in those days, flash forward to the early 20th century, the tenement house act has changed that. these lovely new amenities the confino family would have enjoyed did not come about magically over night. this is a long fought battle that goes to the supreme court before tenement residents enjoy interior light, water, and light as well. 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 the photographs of people like jacob reese which are really well known today, they're still very important, historic documents, tenements are making people sick, contributing to high infant mortality rates. people began to feel like something must be done. through activism ultimately we get the legislation that enforces a change and improves the health and life span of people who live in buildings like this one. in an apartment this small with a family as big as the confinos were, the sort of notion of defined spaces for sleeping, eating, and cooking go out the window. so this contemporary idea that you sleep in a bed room and that's the only place you sleep doesn't apply in this scenario. to fit ten people into a 325 square foot apartment, you have to put someone in every room.

so for example, victoria confino may have slept in the kitchen, which might have been a coveted location in the winter, it's warmer, her brothers and cousins may have slept here. and tenement residents remember and wrote about improvising sleeping locations. so whether that was perhaps stacking up a couple fruit crates, and putting a blanket on top and calling that a bed for a small child. or sleeping head to toe in a twin bed. there were all kinds of creative ways to fit families into these tiny spaces. they'll see this improvised fruit crate bed here toward the back of the room. and then a simple iron bed here on the other side which again very likely would have been shared by two children. we've recreated different

wallpaper patterns that we 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. so this window on to a bed room happens to face the common hallway. so it delineates private space from public space. and so the bars on the window here are for security. and that security would have been important in particular because this is such a busy building. so many people moving in and out. the front door would not necessarily have been locked during the day. so you probably would have wanted a little extra security just to make sure no one is climbing in through the window into your bed room. when our tenement building gets

interior plumbing, it doesn't look anything like what we're used to today, this is still very humble, it's not necessarily a facility that you would be excited to use, but it represents a tremendous improvement over the privies in the backyard, which residents were using before the installation of these toilets. so here we are in the kitchen of this family. they immigrated to the united states as very young people from a part of the world which is now germany. as german speaking immigrants, they would have been particularly attracted to this neighborhood, because during the 1871s. this neighborhood was not known as the lower east side, it was known as little germany. so it's one of americas first ethnic enclaves. one of the first places where immigrants from the same region gathered together and create an intentional community because they share the same language and the same culture. they lived here in this

apartment with three daughters, rosa, olga, and nanny. and a young son who died in infancy, which was not uncommon a all in those days. julius was a shoemaker, so he was going out everyday to make what little money he could to put together enough money to pay the rent which was about $10 at that time. his wife is not earning a paycheck but she was earning her keep. a very hard working woman. she would have been firing up the colburning stove to cook the family dinner everyday. bringing up every drop of water this family needed to clean, cook, and bathe from a spicket in the backyard. she must have been a very strong woman to carry up all that water and coal everyday. not to mention having four children in quick succession. so they're both pretty busy. and they're both keeping themselves afloat. keeping food on the table. at first, during their lives here, it's a time of relative

economic prosperity, people are feeling pretty confident immediately after the american civil war. but all of that changes. and those economic circumstances change drastically until we twin to see a series of -- we begin to see a series of panics, which create joblessness, they create runs on the bank, they create this sort of economic chaos which in particular affects working class immigrants. and they were no exception to that. at one point, julius gets up, 1874, gets up, has breakfast, goes to work, and never returns again. he's effectively abandoning his family or otherwise disappearing, we don't know. leaving natalie alone with small children to raise and no source of income. natalie is in a pretty tough spot. she's all on her own with small children to raise.

and no paycheck coming in any more. so she is left with a few options. she can go to public assistance. there are a few forms of rudimentary public assistance available in those days, more likely she would have turned to her community, a 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 who were also german speaker immigrants who ran the saloon on the ground floor of this building, schneider's saloon, ultimately, natalie survived by setting herself up in business. she sets herself up as a seam stress. she's making individual garments for clients one by one, this is before the days of large scale clothing factories. we begin to see that a few decades later. ultimately, natalie's making as much or more money than her husband was. this was the best baying

legitimate profession that a woman could enter into in those days. so her story eventually is a success story. her daughters grow up and have children of their own. and many of her de cbs descendants still live here in the area. by the time natalie moved on, a lot changed in the neighborhood. it's no longer claimed deutsche land. we're seeing immigrants from eastern europe and italy. we have more evidence of how our building changed over time. you see this dark stripe across the ceiling in this apartment here. 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. so we moved the wall back to represent what the apartment would have been -- would have

looked like authentically in the 1870s when the family was living here. so here we are in the baldici family home. we leap forward in time to 1935. and you'll see that around you in all of these wonderful amenities that the family would have enjoyed, by 1935, this building has electricity, so they were able to listen to the radio. they had electric lights. and a gas cook top. which is installed here on top of the old coal burning stove. and a sink and bathtub here. the bathtub in the kitchen. typical of tenements in those days. and they immigrate here after the accomplishment of ellis

island. they had a great deal more bureaucracy to deal with. going through the immigration process. not least of which was the united states' immigration quotas which were on the books in those days, these quotas dictated the number of immigrants who were allowed to come here to the united states based on nationality. there were fewer italians allowed in than there were immigrants from other countries. and they knew this. the immigration quotas, which the united states government was using in those days were based in part of what we would now consider a pseudo science, called eugenics which is a theory that not all human beings are inherently genetically equal. and some people from some parts o of the world are inherently superior to others.

so when adolfo was preparing to immigrate here, he was worried he his wife would be turned away. and they do not know for certain how adolfo's wife eventually winds up here in the united states, but to the best of our understanding, she works around the system. and 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 very similar to the experience of present day immigrants. we like to put faces to names. and we share family photos of the baldizi's. this is rosaria. so they lived here with their two children, josephine and

johnny. and josephine plays a particularly special role in this museum because later in life, she discovered the tenement museum. and i always think that must have been so strange for her to see that her childhood home had become a museum and a tourist attraction. and fortunately, she was really excited about the museum and shared her memories with us. so i have some audio of her memories of living here at 97 orchard street. >> i remember sitting around the table in the kitchen under the window, and my mother would have made us 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 she never saw them again, many

years later, she never saw her mother or father again. ♪ [ music ] they made their home here in 1869 the moore family shared this apartment with their three daughters, mary, jane, and agnes. baby agnes was just a few months old when the moore family arrived here at 97 orchard street. and 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 that other irish immigrants lived in in those days, by net moore would have been keeping house just like natalie. she's carrying that coal up the stairs and cooking food for her family. trying to keep her children healthy. her husband is going out to work. what we talk about specifically on this tour is some of the discrimination and the hardships that irish immigrants faced specifically in those days, and of course discrimination in the job market was a particular hardship. and joseph moore, certainly grappled with that. according to records, he worked variously as a bartender and a waiter de tending on the year. he probably would have been able to bring home some left over food at the end of the shift to supplement whatever it was that bridget had found to feed the family. another issue that we talk about in our discussions of the

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

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

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

involved, we begin to see garment manufacturing on a larger scale. so rather than sewing garments individually, right here at home, they would have gone out to work in garment factories. so this building ultimately closing in 1935. because another piece of legislation has passed. requiring that the interior stairwell in buildings like this one be fireproofed. which would have meant telling this whole stairwell out and rebuilding it out of stone or metal. which would have been a huge expense. rather than bringing the building up to code, the landlord decided to evict the tenants. the commercial tenants were allowed to stay, the law did not apply to them. but after 1935, this building is no longer a residence. . >> part of what makes the tenant 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. and because these stories are really everyone's stories, they're very relatable. and often our visitors will chime in and share a story of their grandmother or their aunt, something has smackerred a memory for them that they want to share. and that's one of the most certainly valuable experiences for us here at the museum is that it is a dioligic experience, it goes both ways, we want to hear from our visitors as much as we want to share with them. and it's 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's a very, very typical place where thousands of people

started new lives. and there are many buildings just like this. all throughout new york city. and all throughout the country really. so it's incredibly important that places like this are preserved. because they are the sights 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. view this and all cspan programs at cspan.org. browse topics like the word tenement.

for the sixth and the last time i have come to light this christmas tree in the nation's capitol. my prayer now, as it has been in each of these other decembers is for peace and reconciliation abroad, justice and tranquility at home.

seasons greetings from all of us at american history tv. theodore roosevelt american is a 1958 defense department film created by the u.s. army marking the centennial of the 26th president's birth. using photographs, political cartoons, and news real footage, the army pays tribute to the eventful life of the rough rider who spoke softly and carried a big stick.