Lower East Side

Brian's parents have been in town and spring has officially sprung. We've had gorgeous weather -- blue skies, bright sunshine and warmth! Its been wonderful. We've also been really busy seeing the sights, so the nice weather has been a blessing.

Brian and I have been teasing Kris (Brian's Mom) about taking us around to the less appealing neighborhoods of the city during their visit this time. I'll tell you about our adventures in the next couple of blog posts and then let you decide.

On Friday, April 26th we set out to explore the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This area was the major settlement spot for immigrants after they entered the U.S. through Ellis Island. It has been a very culturally diverse area, the most diverse in all of NY for a time. It is classified as a working-class neighborhood and is surrounded by Chinatown, Little Italy and the East Village. Delancey Street runs through the Lower East Side, you might have heard of that if you've seen the movie "Crossing Delancey." So, there's some background for you.

We got into Manhattan around lunch time and decided to stop at our favorite place in Chinatown -- Prosperity Dumpling. Avid readers of our blog will recognize the name. You can get five pork dumplings for $1, and they're really good dumplings. It's delicious.

After filling ourselves with yummy food, we wandered through Chinatown on our way to our original destination. We found the fire station in Chinatown and this was what their main door looked like. We came across a few different fire stations along our adventures and each one had a differently decorated door. Kind of cool.

So our original plan was to take a tour through the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, but when we got there, the most immediate tours had been sold out. This museum consists of a tenement building restored and furnished much like it was during the late 19th and early 20th Century. According to Wikipedia, it "was home to an estimated 7,000 people, from over 20 nations, between 1863 and 1935." It's address is 97 Orchard Street. 

Source

We didn't end up touring through the building, instead we watched a 10 minute video about the museum in the nearby museum shop. We learned that at one time, the Lower East Side was more densely populated than Hong Kong. When the Germans began to immigrate to America it was the third largest German settlement in the world, after Germany and Austria. It was all fascinating stuff. I can't even fathom some of the living conditions, prejudices, and hardships that these people had to face to make a life in America. I'm so grateful that I was born here when I was!

In lieu of touring the museum we went on a self guided walking tour of the neighborhood. Among other things we saw the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue, which was originally built as a Baptist Church, was converted to a Methodist Church and ended up as a Jewish Synagogue. It has water damage now, so the congregations meets in the basement.

We saw the Jewish Daily Forward Building, which was home to a socialist newspaper that was culturally Jewish and published in Yiddish. It was called the "Forverts" meaning Forward.

I though the building was beautiful. There are chiseled pictures of Karl Marx and other socialists above the doorway. In 2005, the building was converted into luxury condominiums.

We also saw Jarmulowsky's Bank started by a Russian Jewish Immigrant to cater to local Jewish immigrants. This bank helped families send money back home and sold steerage tickets to send to family members back in Europe.

So we saw a few interesting things, but mostly it wasn't as exciting as we were hoping. We wanted to stop at "The Pickle Guys," a shop that sells freshly made pickles and is a modern version of the shops run by Jewish immigrants who sold pickles soaking in giant wooden barrels. However, it was Friday and they had already closed for Shabbat by the time we got there.

We ended up walking up Central Park West after our walking tour and climbed up The Great Hill (actual name). The top was open and beautiful and it was a nice place to rest our tired feet. 

We then walked over to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which ended up closing right before we got there. It was still awesome to look at the outer facade. That building is amazing! Brian and I have been there before.

We stopped at V&T Italian Pizzeria, just across the street from the Cathedral, and enjoyed yummy pizza. We ended our day with a stop at the nearby Hungarian Bakery for Strudel and other tasty delights. Overall it was a good day.