[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11990-S11992]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. D'AMATO (for himself and Mr. Moynihan):
  S. 1408. A bill to establish the Lower East Side Tenement National 
Historic Site, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.


 the lower east side tenement museum national historic site act of 1997

  Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to join with my friend and 
colleague, Senator Moynihan, to introduce legislation that will declare 
the Lower East Side Tenement Museum a national historic site. Most of 
us have heard the stories of how the great wave of immigrants of 
generations ago entered our Nation, but few really know what happened 
to them after they landed at Ellis Island. At the Lower East Side 
Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street in New York City, one is able to 
follow the lives of the immigrants beyond the first hours on our 
shores. The museum tells their history, displays their courage and 
showcases their values in an interpretive setting that brings the 
visitor back to an era from which many of us came. The museum presents 
to many of us an awareness of our ancestral roots that we may never 
have known existed. Through the legislation being introduced by Senator 
Moynihan and me, the museum will be able to affiliate itself with the 
National Park Service, bestowing national recognition on the humble 
beginnings of millions of our ancestors.
  The Tenement Museum is unique in that it not only traces the quality 
of life inside the tenement, but presents a picture of the immigrant's 
outside world as well. Due to the cramped and dingy nature of the 
tenement, as much time as possible was spent outside. Thus, in order to 
fully explore their lives, it is essential to look toward their work, 
their houses of worship, their organizations, and their entertainment. 
The museum incorporates the experiences of yesteryear's immigrants and 
interprets them for today's generations. It gives the visitor a 
powerful glimpse into the life and living arrangements that our 
ancestors faced on a daily basis. Besides onsite programs, the museum 
utilizes the surrounding neighborhood; an area which continues to this 
day in its role as a receiver of immigrants.
  Throughout our Nation we have preserved, remembered and cherished 
places of national significance and beauty. We have put enormous energy 
toward maintaining homes of noted Americans and protecting vast areas 
of wilderness. What we do not have, though, is a monument to the so-
called ordinary citizen. The Tenement Museum can fill that role and 
will do so at no cost to the Federal Government under this legislation.
  It is unlikely that many of those who lived in buildings like the one 
at 97 Orchard Street felt that they were special. Rather, they were 
probably grateful for the chance to come to America to try to make a 
better life for themselves and their families. Given the living and 
working conditions that we now take for granted, the language and 
cultural obstacles they had to overcome, we should applaud their 
ability to take hold of an opportunity and not only survive, but 
thrive. It is their contributions to society in the face of 
overwhelming obstacles that defined an era and established an ethic 
that survives to this day. It is their spirit that we admire, and that, 
in retrospect, makes these otherwise ordinary individuals special. The 
Tenement Museum is their monument, and as their descendants, it is ours 
as well.
  Congress has an opportunity to recognize the pioneer spirit of our 
ancestors and deliver it to future generations of Americans. The museum 
reminds us all of an important and often forgotten chapter in our 
immigrant heritage, mainly, that millions of families made their first 
stand in our Nation not in a log cabin or farmhouse or mansion, but in 
a city tenement. Granting the Lower East Side Tenement Museum 
affiliated status within the National Park Service will shed light on 
that chapter while linking it to the chain of the Status of Liberty, 
Ellis Island, and Castle Clinton in the story of our urban immigrant 
heritage. I urge my colleagues to join Senator Moynihan and me in 
cosponsoring this bill, and I urge its speedy consideration by the 
Senate.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record. as follows:

                                S. 1408

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Lower East Side Tenement 
     National Historic Site Act of 1997''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
       (1)(A) immigration, and the resulting diversity of cultural 
     influences, is a key factor in defining the identity of the 
     United States; and
       (B) many United States citizens trace their ancestry to 
     persons born in nations other than the United States;
       (2) the latter part of the 19th century and the early part 
     of the 20th century marked a period in which the volume of 
     immigrants coming to the United States far exceeded that of 
     any time prior to or since that period;
       (3) no single identifiable neighborhood in the United 
     States absorbed a comparable

[[Page S11991]]

     number of immigrants than the Lower East Side neighborhood of 
     Manhattan in New York City;
       (4) the Lower East Side Tenement at 97 Orchard Street in 
     New York City is an outstanding survivor of the vast number 
     of humble buildings that housed immigrants to New York City 
     during the greatest wave of immigration in American history;
       (5) the Lower East Side Tenement is owned and operated as a 
     museum by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum;
       (6) the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is dedicated to 
     interpreting immigrant life within a neighborhood long 
     associated with the immigrant experience in the United 
     States, New York City's Lower East Side, and its importance 
     to United States history; and
       (7)(A) the Director of the National Park Service found the 
     Lower East Side Tenement at 97 Orchard Street to be 
     nationally significant; and
       (B) the Secretary of the Interior declared the Lower East 
     Side Tenement a National Historic Landmark on April 19, 1994; 
     and
       (C) the Director of the National Park Service, through a 
     special resource study, found the Lower East Side Tenement 
     suitable and feasible for inclusion in the National Park 
     System.
       (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
       (1) to ensure the preservation, maintenance, and 
     interpretation of this site and to interpret at the site the 
     themes of immigration, tenement life in the latter half of 
     the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the 
     housing reform movement, and tenement architecture in the 
     United States;
       (2) to ensure continued interpretation of the nationally 
     significant immigrant phenomenon associated with New York 
     City's Lower East Side and the Lower East Side's role in the 
     history of immigration to the United States; and
       (3) to enhance the interpretation of the Castle Clinton, 
     Ellis Island, and Statue of Liberty National Monuments.

     SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

       As used in this Act:
       (1) Historic site.--The term ``historic site'' means the 
     Lower East Side Tenement found at 97 Orchard Street on 
     Manhattan Island in City of New York, State of New York, and 
     designated as a national historic site by section 4.
       (2) Museum.--The term ``Museum'' means the Lower East Side 
     Tenement Museum, a nonprofit organization established in City 
     of New York, State of New York, which owns and operates the 
     tenement building at 97 Orchard Street and manages other 
     properties in the vicinity of 97 Orchard Street as 
     administrative and program support facilities for 97 Orchard 
     Street.
       (3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
     of the Interior.

     SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF HISTORIC SITE.

       (a) In General.--To further the purposes of this Act and 
     the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the preservation of 
     historic American sites, buildings, objects, and antiquities 
     of national significance, and for other purposes'', approved 
     August 21, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461 et seq.), the Lower East Side 
     Tenement at 97 Orchard Street, in the City of New York, State 
     of New York, is designated a national historic site.
       (b) Coordination with National Park System.--
       (1) Affiliated site.--The historic site shall be an 
     affiliated site of the National Park System.
       (2) Coordination.--The Secretary, in consultation with the 
     Museum, shall coordinate the operation and interpretation of 
     the historic site with the Statue of Liberty National 
     Monument, Ellis Island National Monument, and Castle Clinton 
     National Monument. The historic site's story and 
     interpretation of the immigrant experience in the United 
     States is directly related to the themes and purposes of 
     these National Monuments.
       (c) Ownership.--The historic site shall continue to be 
     owned, operated, and managed by the Museum.

     SEC. 5. MANAGEMENT OF THE SITE.

       (a) Cooperative Agreement.--The Secretary may enter into a 
     cooperative agreement with the Museum to ensure the marking, 
     interpretation, and preservation of the national historic 
     site designated by section 4(a).
       (b) Technical and Financial Assistance.--The Secretary may 
     provide technical and financial assistance to the Museum to 
     mark, interpret, and preserve the historic site, including 
     making preservation-related capital improvements and repairs.
       (c) General Management Plan.--
       (1) In general.--The Secretary, in consultation with the 
     Museum, shall develop a general management plan for the 
     historic site that defines the role and responsibility of the 
     Secretary with regard to the interpretation and the 
     preservation of the historic site.
       (2) Integration with national monuments.--The plan shall 
     outline how interpretation and programming for the historic 
     site shall be integrated and coordinated with the Statue of 
     Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island National Monument, 
     and Castle Clinton National Monument to enhance the story of 
     the historic site and these National Monuments.
       (3) Completion.--The plan shall be completed not later than 
     2 years after the date of enactment of this Act.
       (d) Limited Role of Secretary.--Nothing in this Act 
     authorizes the Secretary to acquire the property at 97 
     Orchard Street or to assume overall financial responsibility 
     for the operation, maintenance, or management of the historic 
     site.

     SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as are 
     necessary to carry out this Act.

  Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to join my friend and colleague 
Senator D'Amato in introducing a bill that will authorize a small but 
most significant addition to the National Park system by designating 
the Lower East Side Tenement Museum a national historic site. For 150 
years New York City's Lower East Side has been the most vibrant, 
populous, and famous immigrant neighborhood in the Nation. From the 
first waves of Irish and German immigrants to Italians and Eastern 
European Jews to the Asian, Latin, and Caribbean immigrants arriving 
today, the Lower East Side has provided millions their first American 
home.
  For many of them that home was a brick tenement; six or so stories, 
no elevator, maybe no plumbing, maybe no windows, a business on the 
ground floor, and millions of our forbearers upstairs. The Nation has 
with great pride preserved log cabins, farm houses, and other symbols 
of our agrarian roots. We have reopened Ellis Island to commemorate and 
display the first stop for 12 million immigrants who arrived in New 
York City.
  Until now we have not preserved a sample of urban, working class life 
as part of the immigrant experience. For many of those disembarked on 
Ellis Island the next stop was a tenement on the Lower East Side, such 
as the one at 97 Orchard Street. It is here that the Lower East Side 
Tenement Museum shows us what that next stop was like.
  The tenement at 97 Orchard was built in the 1860's, during the first 
phase of tenement construction. It provided housing for 20 families on 
a plot of land planned for a single family residence. Each floor had 
four 3-room apartments, each of which had two windows in one of the 
rooms and none in the others. The privies were out back, as was the 
spigot that provided water for everyone. The public bathhouse was down 
the street.
  In 1900 this block was the most crowded per acre on Earth. Conditions 
improved at 97 Orchard Street after the passage of the New York 
Tenement House Act of 1901, though the crowding remained. Two toilets 
were installed on each floor. A skylight was installed over the 
stairway and interior windows were cut in the walls to allow some light 
throughout each apartment. For the first time the ground floor became 
commercial space. In 1918 electricity was installed. Further 
improvements were mandated in 1935, but the owner of this building 
chose to board it up rather than follow the new regulations. It 
remained boarded up for 60 years until the idea of a museum took hold.
  The tenement museum will keep at least one apartment in the 
dilapidated condition in which it was found when reopened, to show 
visitors the process of urban archaeology. Others are being restored to 
show how real families lived at different periods in the building's 
history. Across the street there are interpretive programs to better 
explain the larger experience of gaining a foothold on America in the 
Lower East Side of New York. There are also plans for programmatic ties 
with Ellis Island and its precursor, Castle Clinton. And the museum 
plans to play an active role in the immigrant community around it, 
further integrating the past and present immigrant experience on the 
Lower East Side.
  This bill designates the tenement museum a national historic site. It 
also authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to enter into a 
cooperative agreement with the museum to ensure the marking, 
interpretation, and preservation of the site. The Secretary will also 
coordinate with the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Castle Clinton 
sites to help with the interpretation of the immigrant experience. It 
will be a productive partnership.
  Mr. President, I believe the tenement museum provides an outstanding 
opportunity to preserve and present an important stage of the immigrant 
experience and the move for social change in our cities at the turn of 
the century. I know of no better place than 97 Orchard Street to do so, 
and no

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other place in the National Park system doing so already. I look 
forward to the realization of this grand idea, and I ask my colleagues 
for their support.
                                 ______