This building looks just as it did during the Great Depression, when immigrant families were packed inside.

          Long before Sally screamed in faux ecstasy in Katz’ Delicatessen, (in When Harry Met Sally) and before the hippies moved into the area they called the “East Village,” the Lower East Side was an immigration hotspot in both New York and America in general.  Before the aforementioned hippie invasion during the 1960s, the term “Lower East Side” described the area of Manhattan south of 14th street, north of Canal Street, and between Bowery and the East River.  The Delancey Street – Essex Street subway station, at the neighborhood’s center has been a witness to this ever-changing area.

          It was during this time that tenements began popping up in the area.  During the Great Depression, these tenements became overcrowded with the immigrants that continued to trickle into the neighborhood.   As European immigration diminished and Asian immigration expanded, the Lower East Side, including the area around Delancey Street – Essex Street subway station began to be annexed by Chinatown from the south pushing the border from Canal Street to Grand Street.  During the Great Depression, many reformers, journalists, and photographers came to record immigrant life on these streets and in these tenements, making Lower East Side residents what Diner calls “among the most reported upon, studied, and depicted immigrants in the United States. ”  Among those who reported on the area was Jacob Riis who showed the world how these residents lived through his photographs.

         For a great many years, the Lower East Side was the destination of many Jewish immigrants.  Many synagogues, built long ago, can still be found throughout the neighborhood.  In addition, Katz’ Delicatessen, a Kosher deli, just a few blocks from Essex and Delancey, has been a neighborhood landmark since 1888.  These institutions were especially busy during the Great Depression when Jewish culture was quite prevalent throughout the area.  The Lower East Side was important to American Jews as well as Jews around the world.  According to Diner, the area was the largest concentration of Jews in any city any place in the world …[producing] books, newspapers, magazines, plays, music, and other texts that Jews around the United States and even back in Eastern Europe consumed.”   All of these factors contributed to what the Lower East Side was during the Great Depression.  However, many of the Jewish institutions remained and continue to exist today.  No matter their background, almost all residents of the area, natives and immigrants alike, were forced into cramped quarters, tiring jobs, and overall unfortunate situations.

 Diner, Hasia R. Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2000. Print.