The guided tour will focus on the history and architecture of the Lower East Side with particular attention to the housing, institutions and businesses that were the center of immigrant life. The tour will highlight the impact of housing reforms reflected in the changes to the plans and features of tenements over time. “We will see pre-Old Law, Old Law and New Law tenements and look up at the elaborate terra cotta ornamentation that distinguishes many buildings,” said Mitchell Grubler, the tour’s leader.
 
Although endangered, a number of blocks south of Delancey Street still retain the sense of place that would be familiar to our immigrant ancestors. “The Lower East Side is where millions of immigrants have taken their first steps in the New World on the road to the American Dream,” wrote Joyce Mendelsohn, tour co-leader and author of the definitive guidebook to the area, 'The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited.' The structures that housed some of the institutions and businesses which served the multitudes of immigrants will also be highlighted. The tour will pass a Neo-Renaissance style school designed by architect, C.B.J. Snyder in 1897; the former Good Samaritan/Eastern District Dispensary built in 1890; the 12-story former Jarmulowsky Bank of 1911-12; as well as a number of other significant buildings.

Find out more at Friends of the Lower East Side

Date: Saturday, May 2, 2015, Rain Date: Saturday, May 9, 2015

Time: 12 noon - 2:00 pm

Event Start/End:
Start: The southeast corner of Delancey and Orchard Streets, New York, NY
End: TBA

Host: Friends of the Lower East Side, friendsoftheles@gmail.com

Registration: No, all are welcome

Accessibility:  Adults capable of walking 1 1/2 miles