I
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4158
To establish the Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic Site.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 24, 1994
Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To establish the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
National Historic Site.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Lower East Side
Tenement Museum National Historic Site Act of 1994’’.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act:—
(1) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of the Interior.
(2) The term ‘‘historic site’’ means the Lower
East Side Tenement Museum designated as a na-
tional historic site by section 4.
(3) The term ‘‘Museum’’ means the Lower East
Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street, New
York City, in the State of New York, and related fa-
cilities owned or operated by the Museum.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
(1) the Lower East Side Tenement Museum at
97 Orchard Street is an outstanding survivor of the
vast number of humble buildings that housed immi-
grants to New York City during the greatest wave
of immigration in American history;
(2) the Museum is well suited to represent a
profound social movement involving great numbers
of unexceptional but courageous people;
(3) no single identifiable neighborhood in the
United States absorbed a comparable number of
immigrants;
(4) the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is
dedicated to interpreting immigrant life on the
Lower East Side and its importance to United
States history, within a neighborhood long associ-
ated with the immigrant experience in America; and
(5) the National Park Service found the Lower
East Side Tenement Museum to be nationally sig-
nificant, suitable, and feasible for inclusion in the
National Park System.
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to assure the preservation, maintenance,
and interpretation of this site and to interpret in the
site and in the surrounding neighborhood, the
themes of early tenement life, the housing reform
movement, and tenement architecture in the United
States;
(2) to assure the continuation of the Museum
at this site, the preservation of which is necessary
for the continued interpretation of the nationally sig-
nificant immigrant phenomenon associated with the
New York City’s Lower East Side, and its role in
the history of immigration to the United States; and
(3) to enhance the interpretation of the Castle
Clinton National Historic Monument and Ellis Is-
land National Historic Monument through coopera-
tion with the Museum.
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF HISTORIC SITE.
In order to further the purposes of this Act and the
Act of August 21, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461–7), the Lower
East Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street, in the
city of New York, State of New York, is hereby designated
as a national historic site.
SEC. 5. ACQUISITION OR COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—In furtherance of the purposes of
this Act and the Act of August 21, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461–
7), the Secretary may either acquire the historic site with
donated or appropriated funds or enter into cooperative
agreements with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
designed to effectuate the purposes of this Act.
(b) TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.—Such
agreements may include provisions by which the Secretary
will provide technical assistance to mark, restore, inter-
pret, operate, and maintain the historic site and may also
include provisions by which the Secretary will provide fi-
nancial assistance to the Museum to acquire ownership of
and to maintain the historic site, or to mark, interpret,
and restore the historic site, including the making of
preservation-related capital improvements and repairs.
(c) ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS.—Such agreement may
also contain provisions that—
(1) the Secretary, acting through the National
Park Service, shall have the right of access at all
reasonable times to all public portions of the prop-
erty covered by such agreement for the purpose of