Immigrant Soles walking tour

Today I went on the Lower East Side Tenement Museum's walking tour called Immigrant Soles. The guide took us to many sites on the LES that were a part of the immigrant experience in the 19th and 20th centuries. Here are some of the highlights:

E.S. Ridley & Son, a department store built in 1874 where immigrants often came to buy American clothes

The Eldridge Street Synagogue, the first eastern European Jewish synagogue in America

Allen Street and the Manhattan Bridge

Looking uptown on Allen Street

Jarmulowsky Bank, a bank opened in 1912 by a Russian-Jewish immigrant, where immigrants kept their money. They could also buy ship tickets to bring relatives to America.

Loew's Canal movie theater, opened in 1927. That brown metal grid on top of the façade is one of the first air conditioners ever! Now it's about to be converted into a Chinatown Cultural Center, which you can read about here. (That link also shows two photos of what the Loew's theater looked like back in its heyday.)

The Jewish Daily Forward Building, which housed the bilingual English-Yiddish newspaper which helped immigrants adjust to life in America. The building, which has landmark status, is preserved, but now is filled with luxury apartments. Note the writing "Forward" on the side of the building.

P.S. 42, a public school that has been educating immigrant children and children of immigrants for over 100 years. In 1898, when it opened, students were mostly Italian and Jewish, and today the student body is primarily Chinese and Latino.

We also stood in this spot on Orchard Street, looking south from Hester Street, where this photograph was taken in 1898. At the time, it was the most populated area on earth. On earth.

Then (1898)...

...And now.
Not one person in the photo!

I also recently bought the book Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City, which contains 14 walking tours in different neighborhoods of Manhattan. I hope to tackle many of them when the weather gets warmer!