97 Orchard Street FAQ - Lower East Side Tenement Museum

had filtered down to even the most modest projects. At 97 Orchard Street, thebrick façade of the upper floors is ornamented by segmental-arch windowopenings (the circular arch above each window in which the inner circle is lessthan a semicircle) with brownstone trim. An Italianate projecting-metal cornicecaps the façade and is coated with brownstone-colored sand paint.Upon what is the reproduction of the stoop based?• 97 Orchard Street’s stoop and wooden façade was restored in 2001 to look as itdid circa 1905 when then landlords Barnet Goldfein and Benjamin Posner gavethe stoop and storefronts a facelift. Using a circa 1915 photo of the Rogarshevskyfamily taken in front of 97 Orchard Street, architects Li/Saltzman traced andcompared elements in the image with extant examples in the vicinity toresponsibly restore the stoop and façade.Were there always fire escapes on the building? Did they look like the fireescapes we see today?• As required by the 1862 law that established the Department of Buildings, an ironfire escape was originally attached to the front of 97 Orchard Street. An earlyexample of fire escape design, it is known as a fire ladder. Instead of the stairwaysfound on most New York fire escapes, the example at 97 Orchard St. employed avertical ladder. It was removed in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The Museumreplaced the fire escape in 1997, with a replica that mimics the original design ofthe landing barriers, but uses stairs instead of ladders. The use of fire ladders isprohibited by the Fire Department, but landlords with original fire ladders are notrequired to replace them.Was there only a fire escape on the front of the building in the 1860s?• In 1863 there was a fire escape serving the south apartments and a party balconyserving the north apartments on the rear of 97 Orchard Street These partybalconies connected the north apartment of each floor with its neighbor at 99Orchard Street. In case of a fire at 97 Orchard Street, the residents were supposedto climb onto the balcony and escape by entering the apartment in the adjacentbuilding. While the party balconies are extant, the south fire escape was removedand replaced with the fire tower that remains today.What were some of the retail businesses that that operated out of 97 OrchardStreet through the years?• Other than Schneider’s Saloon, we know few details about the shops at 97Orchard Street during the 19 th century. During the 20 th century, some of the shopsincluded the Auction Exchange of Herman and Marcus Brandies, the OrchardPrinting Company, Fischer and Schimmel Hosiery, the Seaboard Importing Co.,Felty’s Hats, and the stove and range repair shop of Morris and Irving Claman.3