If you've never been to the Lower East Side's Tenement Museum, you're missing out on one of the city's most unique and fascinating historical institutions. Now is the perfect time to get acquainted—The Museum is set to unveil a series of new developments in coming months, including a brand new visitor and education center in a newly acquired tenement down the street from the original museum, and a slew of new exhibits, including a look at the retail stores that 97 Orchard St once housed (coming this fall), and a walkable food tour that’s launching on June 24. We spoke to the Museum's VP of Education, Annie Polland, about the new developments and her favorite spots in the neighborhood. more ›

Heads up: this weekend the Tenement Museum is hosting a morning photography event. The museum is usually off-limits to photographers, but Saturday morning they tell us it "will be yours to capture in the beautiful morning light. First join us for doughnuts, cider and a short history of 97 Orchard Street's architecture and inhabitants. Then explore the building's many apartments, stairwells, nooks and crannies." And there's a lot of nooks and crannies... and creepy dolls. Get more details about Saturday's event here. If you go, send us your photos (and bring us some apple cider and donuts back, please). more ›

If you've ever lived in an older building in New York, you've probably wondered what was behind your walls (a secret room, perhaps!). Or maybe that's just us. Anyway, the Tenement Museum is readying their visitors center, and has just posted up some gorgeous photos of the process. When they renovated their 97 Orchard space, there was more in-depth archeological research done; the selective demolition at 103 Orchard Street includes the basement, ground, and second floors of the building — which dates back to the 1880s. Click through for some hot shots of ceiling timbers! Phantom staircases! Old playing cards! And much, much more. more ›

Earlier this month, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum was one of ten museums and libraries awarded the 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the country's "highest honor for institutions that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities." The Institute of Museum and Library Services honors these institutions for "reach[ing] out to people of all ages and backgrounds and invite them to explore our wonderfully diverse history, culture, and literature." more ›

Tonight is the housewarming party, so to speak, for the Tenement Museum's new apartment and the opening of its first tour since 2002. This one is titled, The Moores: An Irish Family in America. They tell us that "it’s taken about 6 years from concept to completion for this particular project. That includes research, planning, fundraising, designing, bringing the upper floors up to code, purchasing artifacts for the apartment, developing content." more ›

Costumed performers and tour guides are fighting for unionization at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, where they work to recreate the squalid living conditions of turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants, the very group that was integral to 20th century unionization efforts. Dozens of the tenement employees protested last night outside a fundraiser for the museum at Chelsea Piers. more ›

BENEFIT: Tonight catch a special performance by Alanis Morissette, while rubbing elbows with Matt Dillon...all for a good cause! The inaugural fundraising benefit for the Adrienne Shelly Foundation will be held this evening, and you can get in with a ticket from $150 to...well, $10,000 bucks. You'll be supporting the late Shelly's foundation which "supports the artistic achievements of female actors, writers and directors through a series of scholarships and grants." 6pm // Skirball Center... more ›

The NY Sun takes a look at the impact of graphic design firm Pentagram on the city’s arts institutions. The article focuses mostly on partner Paula Scher, who has created identities for the Public Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the High Line, the Asia Society and a host of others. more ›

What does NY need? Another historic district, of course! Downtown Express is reporting that Community Board 3 has finally voted in favor of the Lower East Side Historic District, a proposed 20-block area that comprises 450 buildings from East Houston to Canal and from Allen to Essex streets. more ›

EVENT: The New York Book Club at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum presents…"Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered New York City". The panelists include "Hal Buell, longtime AP photo editor who put images of the Vietnam War in newspapers across America; Richard Drew, AP photographer who has covered New York events including 9/11; Edie Lederer, longtime UN correspondent and first woman to be the foreign chief of bureau; and Valerie Komor, corporate archives director of the AP." more ›

EVENT: Together, the New York Book Club and the Gotham Center present "Resistance: A Radical History of the Lower East Side," with Michael Rosen, Al Orensanz, Jay Blotcher, and moderator Clayton Patterson. They'll tell you all about how the LES "experienced massive changes during the 1980s and 90s," including stories from the activists, writers, artists, and residents who lived it. More info here. more ›

Workers crammed into small spaces and contending with oppressive heat on the Lower East Side. Thank goodness for the labor movement of the early 20th Century. Or are the very people who commemorate those days enduring the same conditions? The Villager reports that workers at The Lower East Side Tenemant Museum are taking a page out of their own history books and forming a union. Their complaints include extreme temperatures and cramped workspaces. They want improved working conditions, better pay, and benefits. Irony is alive and well on Orchard St. more ›

+ And happy 102nd birthday, NYC Subway! You don't seem a day over 85! more ›

If you didn't see the NY Times article about Isabel Chang's web project to mapping and documenting houses of worship in Chinatown, definitely check it out. And see the project itself - The Gods of Chinatown. Sponsored by the Tenement Museum, the site is a tour of different temples, but it's more than a tour. Chang share her journey (as she started going to temples when she was depressed), explains what certain things at shrines might mean and gives her experiences at the temples. Bonus for PC users: The downloadable lucky calendar in the lower left corner. more ›

The guys at Transportation Alternatives ran their annual Bike Month NYC commuter race, in which a cab, biker, and pedestrian attempt to get from Brooklyn into Manhattan in the quickest possible time. Last year, the biker got from Juniors on Flatbush Avenue to Columbus Circle in just 27 minutes, beating the subway-rider by three minutes and the cab by 18 minutes. This year's race was from Grand Army Plaza in Park Slope to the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, where the competitors work during the day. The results: more ›

Have you ever found yourself walking in the Lower East Side at night thinking 'Geez, I hope this neighborhood looks exactly like this forever?" Well, it seems that you aren't the only one. more ›

We are sick of winter. Even if it is not that cold, we're sick of all the seasonal things- the layering of clothes, the sneezing in public, the lack of roof bars. more ›

This is so much cooler than your average maps mashup! The Tenement Museum has put together an amazing soundmap of the Lower East Side-- you position the white circles over the various colored dots to create a mix of up to five sound streams. They've got ambient noise (fire hydrants, traffic, music from ice cream vans), folk music, and interviews with people on the streets. It's compulsively fun to play with-- probably best to tell your boss that you've got a doctor's appointment and take your laptop to Starbucks-- because you'll be on this site for at least an hour. more ›

Allison Bowles, Student more ›

If you dined at Tenement on Ludlow Street the past two months and paid by credit card, check your statements. The NY Post reports that a waitress was arrested after stealing the credit card information of at least 37 customers. The police say Dominika Szymanska "used a 'skimmer' — a hand-held mechanical embossing device — to make copies of the diners' credit cards" between March and May. Crazy! Gothamist would say pay cash, but when ATM scammers are about, maybe we should go back to using stones and shells as currency. Tenement owner Paul Uljaky said, "This is obviously not something I had anything to do with," because something like credit card fraud could really screw up the next round of Zagat ratings. more ›

Every week art is freshly hung or taken down from the walls somewhere in this city. This week Gothamist suggests you check out these openings & closings... more ›

I've been feeling less positive about the Tenement Museum since they tried to kick those people out of their apartments on Orchard Street to expand the museum. Still, it is an important resource for the neighborhood. more ›