Starting in what is now Chinatown, this comprehensive architectural tour explores housing on the Lower East Side from the federal, pre-Civil War era to the mid-nineteenth century.

For the past century and a half, immigrants have crowded the streets and tenements of the Lower East Side, and established cultural, social, and religious institutions. On this tour, housing will be explored.

• Starting in what is now Chinatown, this comprehensive architectural tour explores housing on the Lower East Side from the Federal, pre-Civil War era to the mid-nineteenth century.  

• See examples of late 18th and early 19th century housing.

• Walk past social, cultural and religious institutions that have served the community for almost two centuries.

• Stroll down a middle class neighborhood that predates the Civil War.

• Learn about the sites of the notorious Five Points, Gotham Court and Mulberry Bend slums, and the street described by social activist Jacob Riis. Hear evocative interpretations of these neighborhoods.