The Tenement Museum, housed in two remarkably preserved 19th century tenements, offers visitors a unique glimpse into the lives of the Lower East Side's hardscrabble yet inspiring heritage. The museum’s novel interpretation philosophy takes both a conservation approach, carefully stabilizing interior finishes as found, as well as a restoration approach, painstakingly returning certain spaces to a particular period in time.

JBC has worked on a variety of conservation projects at the museum over the course of a decade. This phased approach allows the museum to secure funding while remaining open to visitors. Beginning in 1999, we designed and executed treatments to stabilize a decorative wallcovering throughout the entry hall and restored eight hand painted roundels in collaboration with a paintings conservator. From 2004 to 2006 we produced a Conservation Treatment Plan for the apartments, including a comprehensive conditions assessment, materials analysis and treatment testing, and recommended repair, monitoring, and maintenance procedures. We developed and evaluated conservation treatments for plaster and paint stabilization, cleaning and repair of wood floors and floor coverings, reattachment of peeling wallpaper, and remedial repair to corroding pressed metal.

Beginning in 2009, JBC assisted the museum in conducting investigative probes to determine the original configuration of commercial spaces that once occupied the basement. Paint archeology performed by JBC changed the way the basement was interpreted, revealing the presence of apartments, locations of partition walls, and how the space was subdivided over time. Our work at the museum continues through today with conservation and stabilization of deteriorating paint, plaster, and wallpaper.

JBC’s Stephanie Hoagland discusses different conservation approaches at the Tenement Museum.