Tenement History And Immigrant Life In The Lower East Side

Our tour guide was so knowledgeable, and walking through the Moor home made it so real. Took the Guilded age tour the next day and the contrast was earth shattering

An Outstanding Tenement Tour with Rob Amell! My wife and I took the Tenement History tour with Rob Amell on October 30, 2026, and it was an exceptional experience. Rob is an outstanding guide! Not only did we learn about the massive waves of European immigration during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but we also gained a fascinating understanding of New York Cities history, from its early Dutch settlement to the present day. Rob brought history to life through his enthusiastic storytelling and an impressive collection of photographs, maps, drawings, and artistic depictions. His knowledge, passion, and ability to make history engaging made the entire experience both educational and memorial. We highly recommend Rob Amell to anyone looking for an informative, engaging, and memorable tour of New York City!

Our family had a wonderful afternoon with Rob. He is so knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and accommodating. Great additional "visual aids" like old photos and maps to enrich the story. He was happy to answer all our Qs, and when he didn’t have an answer to one, he texted me later with an update!

Such great and interesting information! Our guide Rob was fantastic he totally made this tour great, answered so many questions!

My mom and I met with Rob who is a wealth of knowledge about NYC history and then some. We walked and talked and looked at pictures and heard some fascinating stories. Really amazing how many lives have been lived and lost on the same land we occupy today. I do recommend and will look into other tours with Rob in the future. What a memorable day!

Highly recommend this tour! Rob is extremely knowledgeable and provided a fascinating insight to the history of the area. Really appreciated the use of maps and photographs to help us visualize and make sense of the history. We learned so much during this tour and would definitely book another tour with Rob when we’re in the area again. Thanks Rob for a great experience!

A full, immersive introduction to a century of immigrant waves into NYC -- Irish, Chinese, Italian, Jewish -- how their experiences differed, what they shared. The short presentation in Foley Square helped set the stage for what we would see, and the pathway chosen hit many high spots. Fortunately, much of the neighborhood, streets and its buildings still stand, so you can still get a sense of late 19th century, early 20th century immigrant life even in 2026. We had a knowledgeable guide, impassioned by NYC history.

Please understand that this is not a tour to the Tenement Museum! It’s actually so much more than that. If you want a real insight into the development of Manhattan, then Rob brings the subject to life. Make sure you’ve got your walking shoes on, and be ready for so many facts to be given to you. We felt that this tour was one of the best we have ever had, and we travel a lot! It’s really worth staying until the absolute end of the tour when you are treated to an overview of the area you have been walking around. We cannot recommend this experience more if you truly have an interest in social history.

Rob was an outstanding tour guide. He provided a lot of interesting facts in a professional manner and answered all questions without difficulty. If you take this tour, ask for Rob

A deep dive into the Lower East Side, primarily focused on the Five Points and the present Chinatown areas. Moderate walking at a reasonable pace around the area. Robert did an outstanding job of explaining the economic, ethnic and cultural place of the LES in the evolutionary march of NYC from the Wall Strett area to the current Midtown. There were lots of interesting nuggets of background and trivia about the area and its inhabitants.

Our Tenement tour Guide was extremely knowledgeable and well informed. We saw places in Manhattan that few visitors experience. We loved the tour

Rob was AWESOME. A true fountain of information about the history of NYC and the immigrants who built it, It's heavy on architecture as the title implies, but you don't need a PhD to follow along and understand their importance.

Rob was our extremely knowledgeable guide who took us on the Tenement Walking Tour. He met us at a convenient location and began with an overview of the time period, mid-to-late 1800’s into the early 1900’s. He brought charts and graphs, old photo’s, and a variety of maps to help us get a lay of the land. He covered the myriad groups of immigrants who came to NYC in waves, what their home and jobs were like, and what turf belonged to what group. Rob covered architecture, pre-law buildings and pointed out post-law buildings when windows were added to “inner dark rooms.” We saw Al Capone’s old stomping ground, a Romanian Jewish Synagogoe and back houses that were added to tenement housing by greedy landlords. Rob really knew his history and we can’t wait to take another tour with him this fall. Do yourself a favor; it was worth every dollar.

Rob was very knowledgeable, engaged and passionate about teaching us. We learned a ton about the history of the Lower East Side on this walking tour and would recommend it without hesitation.

Rob was a wealth of information, so well versed on the city, had excellent visual props to help us understand and I swear he should have been a college professor!

If you love, history and architecture, this is the tour for you!! went with my husband and our 32-year-old son and 30-year-old daughter-in-law.Wonderful overview of early immigrant life in New York City. Great maps to get your bearings. Lots of history from the past as well as importance of certain current buildings and location. Great tips on eateries that locals love! The history of architectural development is fascinating. Rob is a huge wealth of knowledge and clearly passionate about his tours. One of the best tours we have taken anywhere in the world. Looking forward to doing a different tour with him the next time we visit New York City!

Excellent tour by an excellent guide. He was so knowledgeable about everything about the neighborhoods we visited and New York City in general and obviously loves what he does. Exactly what I was hoping for.

The ad talks about Tenement Museum but it has nothing to do with the museum. The meeting place is Foley Square which is more than a mile away from the Tenement Museum. When we arrived at Foley Square there was a union rally going on and nobody to guide this tour. TOTAL SCAM.

Rob is awesome, he went beyond the call of duty.

Very informative, interesting. We learned a lot about the history of the city and we will never walk thru the tenement district again without looking up!

Our tour guide, Rob, is definitely an expert in the area’s history. He came prepared with 2 binders of pictures so we could see the development of the different neighborhoods. We were able to really get a feel for the different cultures and decades of life in this area.

Our guide Rob is extremely knowledgeable about the history and geography of New York. He provided a torrent of information about tenements, of course, but also about the overall development of New York and the immigration to New York of the Irish, Italians, Jews and Germans and the migration of the Blacks from the south. After taking this tour, I see things in New York that I never appreciated or understood before. I highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in the history of New York or in urban history in general. Note that while the walking pace for this tour is reasonable, you will walk a couple of miles or so.

My wife and I really enjoyed this tour. While the tour is focused on tenements, our guide Rob provided us with a vast amount of information on New York’s immigrants, history and geography. I highly recommend this tour to anyone with an interest in urban history in general, or in New York’s history in particular. Note that while the tour’s walking pace is not fast, you will wind up walking a couple of miles or so.

Rob was a great guide. His knowledge was amazing! We loved his maps, charts, articles and pictures of how it was. He accommodated everyone’s pace. His stories were entertaining.

Excellent tour guide and tour

Rob was great. Such a wealth of knowledge and a great story teller. Great walking tour of NYC. He had graphics and pictures to make his words even more impactful. He really knows this city.

Rob gave us an amazingly comprehensive, easy-to-understand, and deep understanding of the subject. We were admittedly geeks about the subject and asked tons of questions, prolonging the tour with Rob took in stride. His knowledge and preparation on the topic was astounding. Highly recommend. (PS-my wife booked it. I was skeptical but enthralled!)

We thoroughly enjoyed the tour. We dipped in and out of some shops that added to the tour. Rob made it fun and interesting.

Rod was very knowledgeable. We enjoyed his company. He had a great personality lots of stories very knowledgeable.

Rob was absolutely amazing! We learned so much and can’t wait to do another tour with him.

I loved this tour. I learned so much about immigrants coming to NYC. Highly recommended. One of the best tours I have ever been on.

We really enjoyed this tour. Our tour guide, Rob was very knowledgeable and friend. We learned a lot about the history of NY, the waves of immigrants who came and the building. Rob also pointed out a lot of other fun little shops and places to eat along the tour. This was a great way to get to know the Lower East Side and learn more about the history of the growth of NY. Highly recommended.

Our guide was very thorough and informative. A lot of waking, but very doable. The trip through the Chinese market was fascinating.

We had a brilliant guide called Rob , he was so knowledgeable and made our walking tour very interesting

The tour guide was so knowledgeable, answered every question and was just so pleasant to be with. I would go on the tour again, just to learn even more.

Mistakenly booked this tour instead of the tenement museum buy very glad I did! There were only a few of us on today's tour and the smaller group made it that much more enjoyable for me. Would absolutely recommend this tour to anyone interested in early NYC, immigration or antique architectural histories!

Rob was super knowledgeable about the area, was flexible with whatever we wanted to do and showed us some great historical buildings as well as current hidden gems. Was a great experience overall and we plan to recommend to our friends & family!

Rob was great. Very informative, friendly, and gave us great insight into the history of the area. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

The guide was so incredibly nice and knowledgeable . My 16 year old granddaughter and I had a wonderful few hrs soaking up the history and vibe

The tour was very interesting. The guide knew a lot about the the neighborhood and answered questions that we asked. Highly recommend this tour.

So interactive, so informative. Great pace and so much learned. He is a wealth of knowledge and so pleasant to listen to. Interested in all the questions as well!

Very informative tour with lots of history about the migrations and how the city evolved. Ended at a rooftop hotel to overlook the city

Robert was an amazing tour guide - he really explained the history- which is what we wanted !!! Would totally recommend.

Rob is an excellent tour guide. We were the only ones on the tour but he presented a full and detailed walking tour to us just the same. It felt like have a professor as a guide through lower Manhattan learning the history of the tenement housing as well as so many other things. He brings along visuals to share and he is so well organized and fuill of information. He suggests options that make the tour more suited to your interests and needs. It was a great way to see the area. We would have missed so much by exploring on our own.

We learned so much!!!! Rob is one of the most knowledgeable and engaging guides!!! awesome experience!!!

Wonderful, Robert was very knowledgeable and came with visual aids that made the New York experience come alive for us. Very happy with tour. Leaned a lot.

Rob took his time explaining the history and the visuals as we walked the lower east side. He was excellent!

The tour was on the geography and history of tenements in lower Manhattan. It is not to be confused with the tenement museum tour. I really liked the tenement museum tour on our last trip, and I wanted more information on tenements. This was the tour for that. Our tour guide was professional, knowledgeable, and had a lot of interesting stories about the different immigrant groups and different tenement buildings.

If you read the description on viator, this tour will make it clear that this is not a tour of the tenement museum, nor affiliated with that organization. Rob will also take care to text you beforehand to avoid any potential confusion. What you won't know, is that this tour is in fact a much more wide-ranging explanation of the immigrant experience in NYC's Lower East Side than the tenement museum will offer you. Trust me, I've experienced them both. Rob will go into extensive detail about the formation of the city, it's over centuries-long development, and the eras of immigration that played out in the lower east side as generations of immigrant populations slowly gained a foothold in Manhattan and gradually moved up in the city. He possesses a wealth of meticulously researched knowledge that will give you an intimate understanding of the many, many stories that feed, over generations, into the narrative of NYC. If you want to understand the true New York City experience, of the untold masses of people who arrived to this island to carve out a living for themselves and their loved ones, Rob has you covered. I lived in the city myself for a few years before COVID, and have returned every year since then, trying to find new aspects of this place that I have yet to experience. Due to life circumstances, I may not be able to return to the city for some time, so this last visit was bittersweet as I made peace with, for a time, leaving behind the city that had such a profound impact on me despite the few years I spent here. I can't think of a better way to experience it than on one of Rob's tours, and am grateful to for the opportunity to have seen his view of New York.