Temps too hot for you these days? Good thing you didnt live in 1896!

Think it's been a hot few days? Maybe this will make you feel better:  The New York City Heat Wave Of 1896 lasted 10 days and close to 1,500 people died, many of them tenement-dwellers. On the Lower East
Side tenement apartments were jam-packed with the city’s growing immigrant population. Poor families – from Italy, Eastern Europe, Germany, Ireland—crammed into small 2 room apartments with poor ventilation and no running water. Sometimes as many as 10 to 12 people would live in one apartment. Already terrible conditions became a living hell that summer. Want to learn more about the immigrant experience in the Lower East Side? Check out Free Tours By Foot’s Lower East Side tour.