Tenement Memories | The New York Times

Rita Ascione is one of the last living residents of the Lower East Side building that is now the Tenement Museum. She recently returned with her daughter, Valerie Carmody, to see her old apartment.
Produced by: Damon Winter and Joshua Davis
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Tenement Memories | The New York Times
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[@ghiberti]

Just lovely! The grandma lived long enough to share her tenement story with her granddaughters. A story of survival with a heart!

[@TheBestYouthWrestlingVideos]

Sadly, Rita has passed on at 96 and so has Valerie. 🕊️ They have found eternal peace. I have many wonderful memories of this family.Thank you NYT for sharing this with the world. 💪🔥

[@YooTuba]

It's nice that she was around to share her memories and that the old building is still around for us to see.

[@sc0tte1-416]

I don't think they should rip down these old buildings just to put up towers of glass and steel, they should be preserved and renewed because they don't build stuff like that anymore, and they're beautiful buildings

[@pressurewashingcompany]

You can't stop bigger developments like that, unfortunately. We should carefully plan which structure to remove based on design and the public outcry.

[@lorascelsi8102]

Totally agree. Lived in the tenements in the Bronx. The people living in those buildings became mini families. Miss those days. What a cute story. Developers should use there resources to improve and renovate the tenements.

[@LadySpace_888]

We cannot just eradicate historical places like this. They will never be replaced and they're such an important part of NY history and history in general. Very soon we will not have a shred of a time gone by in this city. It's so heartbreaking.

[@goblins2k5]

We'd be better of not preserving all of our historic slums. Maybe keep one as a museum. They're outdated tenements, we could use larger modern housing structures. Not just NY but all across the country, people are paying astronomical rent in +100 year old buildings.

[@ACCOMPLISHEDSHEIS]

I GIVE THIS WOMAN CREDIT FOR WALKING UP ALL THESE STAIRS TO THE ROOF. I USED TO LIVE IN SIX FLOOR WALK UP AND TODAY, I COULDN’T WALK UP PASS TWO FLIGHTS. SOMETIMES, I WONDER WHAT DOES MY PARENTS OLD APARTMENT LOOK LIKE TODAY.

[@lorascelsi8102]

Those tenements are real New York. What a great experience. History matters.

[@BethGrantDeRoos]

What a great video. Loved hearing Rita Ascione talk about living in the tenement building. Wise woman.

[@natalies4785]

Great story. My mom and Grandma were born in tenements. My mom always talks about hanging laundry on the roof and her and her sister shooting spitballs at people from the fire escape. They took us to the tenement museum. My moms vision of true America is tenements. It was like one big loud family under one roof. West Side Story, her favorite film. Perhaps if there were more tenements there would be less homelessness. If there was a tenement vacation spot up in the Bronx she and my aunt would be going and at 50 something shoot spitball out the window.

[@pressurewashingcompany]

That's a cool story. As for what you said about poverty, there's a lot of factors that go into it. Adding more housing won't really help, it'll just cheapen the price out considering there is more space for people to move into the largest city in the United States.

[@beltuna9]

I agree. People are so isolated from each other today. I'm convinced it causes more social ills than the crowding of times past.

[@petergraves2085]

This is one of THE most fascinating places to visit in NYC. It dates from the mid-1800s and was regarded (in its time) as an advancement on living in The Five Points. It had toilets (on the ground floor) and a water supply (on the ground floor), although complete families used to live in just two rooms. Up and down stairs, all day. It was closed in the 1930s and remained shut for about 60 years. It is truly a complete time museum, of how tenants used to live in NYC when living in the Lower East Side had entirely different connotations. As one example, see the 1975 film "Hester Street".

[@noah_forgetta2802]

THATS MY GREAT GRANDMOTHER

[@justmandi3571]

She's a beautiful and strong woman with a very lovely smile :)

[@noah_forgetta2802]

Amanda Jariett hey thx

[@LadySpace_888]

Funny as I was watching this I couldn't help wishing that either of my Grandmothers (or Great-Grandmothers!) were still alive.

[@beltuna9]

I visited a few years ago. Wonderful museum! I'm also a friend of the Baldizzi family.

[@LeonardGalit]

My grandfather who was born in Poland; he went to London in 1911 where my father was born. They family lived in one of those tenement apartments. They were Jews and left Europe before the holocaust. My father went from England to NYC in 1921 with his older sister and mother. Now I am a Baha'i; I am proud of my Jewish heritage, but I believe that the world needs unity and peace which is why I became a Baha'i.

[@GeneDexter]

A world today where $2M condos are smaller than these.

[@rockandrolllifestyle8679]

what a positively lovely lady

[@isunlloaoll]

Tenements like this crowded with immigrants still exist. Just not in Manhattan anymore.

[@fvallee33]

ARVIN so true !

[@mlonardoxu]

Entire blocks in Manhattan are landmarked under NYC Landmark law. They cannot be demolished

[@flala2261]

sweet family

[@michaelgiordani3967]

My great grand pa was born in one of this tenements in hells kitchen. 1889-1973 Raffaelle Giordani.

[@latashahoward3943]

I read a few years after this the daughter Valerie passed and her mom Rita has since passed.

[@jordangagat]

In Poland have a tenement from XIX century 18 century transform as a flat

[@shore9216]

I use to live in that building in the 80s. Ill tell you how it really was

[@noah_forgetta2802]

What was it like

[@jordangagat]

And vandals destroy build