Event

Lower East Side Walking Tour

One of the most historically significant and complex neighborhoods in the country, this fabled provenance of the urban Industrial Era provided decades of shelter for the world's castaways who in turn introduced radical new ideas which influenced the character of our nation.

However, the Lower East Side offers much more than the "immigrant experience." Go beyond the familiar narrative and take a truly unique and comprehensive tour of our neighborhood, exploring over a thousand years of important New York City history with author and director of the Lower East Side History Project, Eric Ferrara.

Ferrara, a fourth-generation Lower East Sider, offers a decade of active research and over a century of ancestral community insight, providing a one of a kind experience suitable for any casual tour-goer or hard-core academic. Utilizing rare maps, photos, documents, articles and oral histories not found elsewhere, Ferrara digs deep into the neighborhood's forgotten history -- exposing the social, political and cultural intricacies which made this so district vital to the evolution of our city.

Topics include:
- Lenape (Indian) culture
- Dutch & English development
- African contributions
- The Revolutionary War
- Post-Revolution industrialization
- 19th century Immigration
- Entertainment, labor, politics
- Vaudeville, dime museums, immigrant theater
- Social service and religion
- Prohibition, gangsters
- Post World War II gentrification
- 21st century gentrification

Visit on tour:
- The site of the largest Lenape village on Manhattan Island
- The notorious Five Points
- Former districts of Irish, German, Jewish and Italian immigrants
- Chinatown, the Bowery
- Churches and synagogues
- Old theaters, restaurants and shops
- Landmarks and sites of interest
- Much more

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