The NYC Experience: Immigrant Day

Kathy and I declared yesterday, "Immigrant Day."

In the morning, she went to visit Ellis Island and in the afternoon we went to the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side. We ate non-American food for lunch and dinner and explored the Lower East Side the whole afternoon.

Ellis Island

Immigrant Day!

Kathy got going early to take the subway down to Battery Park and even though she got there when the Ferry Tickets opened - she still waited in line over an hour. She really enjoyed the Island, though and got a rubbing of her great uncle's name who was etched on to the Immigrant Wall. She also got amazing photos - it was a beautiful, clear day yesterday.

While Kathy was launching Immigrant Day at the doorway to America, I stayed in and got some things done. I worked out, did laundry, spent some time reading and journaling and researched the Lower East Side (LES). I hopped on the subway in the afternoon and successfully accomplished my first solo subway transfer to get downtown. I was pretty proud of myself.

LES tenement neighborhood

The Tenement Museum was so amazing. It's one apartment building at 97 Orchard St. They believe that over 7,000 people from 21 countries lived in that building from the 1830s to 1955. We just did one of the 4 available tours called the Sweatshop Tour. It focused on the apartments of two families of Eastern European Jewish heritage; one who lived in the building in the late 1800s to around 1905 and the other family who lived there from 1910 to 1941. It was fascinating. It reminded me of what all of our immigrant ancestors went through to come to the United States and make a way for me to have the life I enjoy today. They worked incredibly hard, they lived in not-so-nice situations, they were courageous and determined.

Front room - sweatshop

Sweatshop kitchen with presser in middle of room

Front room looking into kitchen

I've always thought that Sweatshops referred to factories where lots and lots of people worked together. Actually the term started before the factories and even before the electric sewing machine. When the garment industry was just breaking and women were starting to buy pre-sized clothes off the rack from stores like Macy's (and not getting personalized fittings from a dressmaker), most of those clothes were made in New York City. Design houses designed the clothes, picked the fabrics and even cut the pieces - then immigrants all through the lower east side assembled the dresses; some by hand and some with push pedal machines. They were all independent contractors who worked out of their homes. They hired their relatives and neighbors to work in their apartments and they contracted to the design house. Competition was fierce and so the lowest prices won the contracts. They worked 10 hours+ a day, 6 days a week in their apartments which had no running water, no electricity and the family who owned the apartment would also be living there! The term sweatshop really meant that you would "wring the every ounce of work out of people" just like you wring sweat or water out of a cloth. As the electric sewing machine came in and because of some reform laws (instigated by the ladies uptown), the factory age started in the 1900s and the term sweatshop remained.

Early 1900s front room - looking into kitchen
Three boys slept in this room using the couch as a pillow
and setting up chairs as their "bed"

Each tenement building had 5 floors and two apartments on each floor - one in the front and one in the back. Each apartment had three small rooms - a front room (living room), a kitchen and a bedroom. They had outhouses and had to carry up water and coal to the house. There were reforms passed in 1910(?) that mandated windows in between the rooms for light and circulation and indoor plumbing - so they usually installed one toiled in the hallway of each floor. It was amazing to think of all the immigrant families who lived there and worked extremely hard to get their families OUT of their and into better neighborhoods. There's a lot more amazing information available at www.tenement.org. Check it out!

A former bath house

After the museum and tour we went to see one of the last remaining bath houses (the building - it's not an actual bath house anymore). Because the tenements did not have running water, the city built 14 public bath houses to give people a way to get clean. This was instigated by the "Uptown Ladies" who were the key reformers and activists on behalf of the tenements.

We were pretty hungry by then so we stopped into a restaurant called Sauce (not the chain) and had the most amazing homemade Italian sausage, gravy and a so-yummy salad with escarole, lemon dressing, sliced apples, feta cheese and piñon nuts. I was over the moon!

Groovy machine @ Roasting Plant

Once we were refueled and rested we started out on the Michelle walking tour of the LES. We stopped into Pop Karma, a gourmet popcorn places that uses all natural ingredients - and got a sample. Then on to Roasting Plant - a really cool coffee place that has beans from all over the world in these canisters and when you order, they have a machine that sucks out just enough beans and transports them to a grinder and they make your coffee fresh before your eyes. They also roast their own coffee right there so you can get the freshest of fresh beans. (We just took pics)

Doughnuts to Die For!

We made our way down to Grand Street to go to Doughnut Plant. This place is downright amazing. Read the owner's story and make sure you visit this place on your next trip to NYC. All of the doughnuts are made from his old family recipies and he uses the best of fresh ingredients. He makes the most amazing combinations of doughnut (Yeast and Cake) and then tops them with all kinds of lovely glazes, nuts, fruit. His fillings are all home-made. It was truly lovely.

Cafe Grumpy

We took our dougnuts over toward Seward Park to eat them with a yummy capp from Cafe Grumpy. I love that place! Kathy took some time to do some sketches while we sipped our cappuccinos and ate a pumpkin doughnut.

We walked through Seward Park and explored the Seward Park Library. We passed the Settlement Houses - which were another reform idea of the Uptown Ladies to help the tenement children have a positive place to go and to learn how to be good Americans. Now many of them are apartment buildings, but there are still some in operation.

It was so fun to walk through the LES neighborhood. It's filled with galleries, boutiques, shops and fascinating architecture.

Next we headed down Canal St. looking for the Eldridge Street Museum which we didn't find, but we did come across this very cool structure that we thought had to be something important and amazing, but it turned out to be a really beautiful entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. I guess it's one of those things that the locals kind of forget is there, but it's really magnificent.

By that time, it was almost 6 - so we headed back to the tenement museum to get some books we'd been eyeing and use the restroom before heading on the train back to midtown. We met Micheale and her friend, Karen, for dinner at my favorite next door joint - Toloache - and had amazing Mexican food. I now know the owner pretty well and he got us in ahead of the wait line and bought us dessert. I even got a kiss-kiss on the cheek as we left! I guess we're close now!!

I think I will celebrate Immigrant Day every October 18th!