Family on the Loose

Manhattan can be an expensive and intimidating destination for anyone.  It’s a great place to travel as a family but it’s challenging to get past the big tourist destinations and into the real city.  Here’s a few of our recent finds to get you started!  The Tenement Museum is a fantastic window into the history of New York City and into America in general.  It should not be missed but you must get your tickets in advance to avoid disappointment.  Visits to the museum are by guided tour and there are several unique packages to choose from.  Most of the tours take place at 97 Orchard Street, a renovated tenement building with a basement and 5 floors, each housing a different window into history.  The building once housed 2 shops and about 22 apartments, each only 325 sq ft and without plumbing or electricity.  During a 70 year period centered on about the turn of the last century, approximately 7000 individuals and 30 different businesses were housed in this one building.

We took their newest tour, the “Shop Life” tour, on the bottom level and enjoyed an overview of life as a new immigrant to New York with emphasis on the wave of German immigrants from about 1860-1880.  We learned through old photos, newspaper clippings, an interactive card game, visiting rooms, holding artifacts, and a high-tech smart board (you may be impressed by the high tech smart board but your child will likely be a lot less impressed as there are many in school classrooms across the country).  The 90-minute experience gave us all a multi-faceted vision of what life was really like for the proprietors, John and his wife Caroline, as well as glimpses into the other businesses that once occupied the building including a kosher butcher, an undergarment factory, and an auction house.  The finale was a video of a nearby contemporary local storeowner and wrapped up the tour with thoughtful style and a new perspective on modern NYC life.  The tours are billed for kids aged 8 and up because they do involve listening, sitting, and not touching.  There are also food-sampling tours, live actress Read more »