The summer heat is here in full force! If you’ve been reading our blog lately you’ll know we’ve come up with some great ways to beat the heat like a Lower East Side local this summer, and here is our next tip – head to your local movie theater for an afternoon of much-deserved relaxation and air conditioning! The movies have been the staple of summer amusement for over a century, and here on the Lower East Side, we have a rich history of theaters and the patrons who loved them.

Moving pictures projected onto a screen have been around since the 1890s with owners of saloons and arcades charging a few cents to see a film. By 1905, little theaters in storefronts all over Manhattan were cropping up, especially in neighborhoods comprised mostly of tenement housing.

One of the many movie theaters (or “nickelodeons”, as they were called colloquially) built in 1927 in our neighborhood still stands just a few blocks from us. The original Loew’s Canal Street movie theater can be found on Canal Street between Ludlow and Essex. One could stop in to this beautiful building with its artfully carved terra cotta façade for a double feature for a total of five cents! Gone with the Wind, Meet Me in St. Louis, or Shirley Temple in Curly Top would have been screened at the beloved neighborhood spot.

And another perk of going to the movies at Loew’s on Canal? This theater sported an early model of air conditioning, called an air cooling system. If you walk by the building you can still see the enormous fan system on the roof to this day. While the theater is no longer operational, the building still stands and is in the process of being investigated for landmark designation status.

So whether it’s 1911 or 2011 New Yorkers have always found the movies a great way to relax and stay cool during the long summer months, even if it no longer costs 5 cents.

Seen any great movies this summer? Know of any other vintage theaters still around today? Please leave us a note in the comments. Until next week, stay cool, readers!

PS. You know where else is air conditioned? Our museum! Join us in the coming heat wave for a cool tour!

“I live in a tent on a rooftop.”

“Oh,” is all I could say. “Is that legal?”’

My Parisian friend interning here in New York City for the summer couldn’t say. He rents in NoLita for $500/month. It is a low price for the neighborhood, but a steep price for a tent.

My penchant for historical analysis led me to investigate the origins of rooftop encampment.  With some research I found that his status as a foreigner living on a roof follows a long history of immigrants on the Lower East side escaping summer heat by utilizing the real estate outside and above their apartments.

These immigrants mostly lived in overcrowded tenements, where a lack of ventilation and air conditioning led not only to uncomfortable living situations, but also spawned disease. The 1901 Report of Tenement Housing noted, “In the summer, the small bedrooms are so hot and stifling that a large part of the tenement-house population sleep on the roofs, the sidewalks, and the fire-escapes.” (1) In a 1900 court case between the New York State Tenement Housing Commission and a tenant known only as Mr. Moskowitz, there is a citation that about one-third of tenement residents sleep on the roof to escape the heat of their apartments. (2) Additionally, community activists such as Lillian Wald, founder of the Henry Street Settlement, literally went from rooftop to rooftop providing tenement residents with medical assistance, citing rooftops as a safe-haven from rampant disease. (3)

"Reading at sunset on the roof at Seward Park. This man is studying for his regents examinations while the boys and girls are deep in fairy tales." Thanks to the New York Public Library for the image and click for the source!

A lack of parks and playgrounds limited opportunities to find refuge from the sweltering apartments. In 1896, the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor through the Department of Dwellings called for the installation of more playgrounds on rooftops. (4) Hot spots in our neighborhood, such as the Seward Park Library and the Educational Alliance, built playgrounds and gardens on their rooftops in response to the decree. These spots provided summertime activities for children and families to cool off from the steamy, sticky heat filling the overpopulated streets while participating in healthy, community building activities. Congregants of the Eldridge Street Synagogue often looked to the synagogue, and particularly its cooler lower level, as a sanctuary from the heat.

My Parisian friend and his counterparts of 100 year ago both figured out how to make the best of the sweltering New York City summers. Although conditions are never ideal, rooftops at the turn of the century and in the present-day enable people to make use of the limited space available in a crowded city such as New York. When life gives you a tent in the Big Apple, pitch it on the roof.

1. Tenement Housing Commision, 1901, pp. 540
2. New York State Housing Commision,1900, pp. 416
3. Jewish Women’s Archive, 2011
4. Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, 1896, pp. 110

Thank you to intern David Schlenker for his excellent research and writing on summer rooftop practices!