The American Republic Since 1877 © 2007

Chapter 10: Urban America, 1865—1896

Web Lesson Plans

Introduction
Students have read about the arrival of millions of immigrants in American cities during the late 1800s. In this activity they will discover what life was like for those immigrants who settled in the cities' tenements.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum Web site to learn about tenement life during the late 1800s. They will read about the living conditions in the tenements, the neighborhood of 97 Orchard Street, and some of the challenges that immigrants faced in the United States. Students will also see photos of some of the tenants of 97 Orchard Street, read their stories, and view 360 degree panoramic views of the apartments. They will then answer four questions and apply this information by imagining they are reporters interviewing an immigrant resident of 97 Orchard Street.

1. Students will define the lifestyle of most urban immigrants in the late 1800s.
2. Students will be able to use this knowledge to write an interview with an immigrant resident of a tenement in the 1870s.

1. The neighborhood of 97 Orchard Street, called Kleindeutschland, was crowded with German immigrants during the mid-1800s. "Little Germany" was America’s first sizable foreign language enclave, filled with several different ethnic groups and religious affiliations. The residents formed regionally-based lodges and societies. The tenement at 97 Orchard Street had no indoor toilets and no running water. Residents had access to water and outhouses in the building’s backyard. While the outhouses of 97 Orchard Street hooked up to sewage lines, many tenement privies of the time did not. Those residents endured filthy sanitation conditions every time they collected water.
2. Each apartment in the tenement has a similar layout. Each consists of three rooms, including a small back room generally used as a bedroom and two larger rooms—a kitchen in the middle and a living room in the front. The apartments are, in general, sparsely furnished, with hardwood floors and large pieces of functional furniture. The living rooms have two large windows stretching almost from floor to ceiling, while the back rooms lead out into the common hallway of the tenement.
3. When her husband left the family, Mrs. Gumpertz had to find a means of support. She converted her front room into a workshop and became a dressmaker. In the late 1800s, dressmaking provided single women some of the highest fees earned by female workers. Additionally, it was an occupation that was easy to set up in the home, and installment plans made purchasing sewing machines affordable.
4. Many immigrant children worked to provide necessary income for the family. The positions filled by children were often in sweatshops and tenement flats, doing home-based piecework or shining shoes and hawking newspapers. Children in the 1800s labored long hours under poor conditions for paltry pay.
5. Students’ interviews will vary.