Camp S.O. Cool visits Chinatown and Five Points

First stop was Grand St and Chrystie St., where we looked at the blocks of tenements knocked down to create a Sara D Roosevelt Park, a series of playgrounds between Chrystie and Forsythe Streets that was made in the 1930s after knocking down tenements (which we learned about from the Tenement Museum).



Second stop was to walk past 81 Bowery
, where we reflected on the videos we saw about the modern tenement that was on the 4th floor of the building.



Interior Photos by Annie Ling

 http://annielingphoto.com/81-bowery/\

We are shocked to consider that there are still tenement conditions for people living in NYC.

Ben noticed the Sun Bright SRO Hotel
across the street which we had also learned about.


After Walking past the oldest brick townhouse in Manhattan, we found the last public bit of Chinatown secret tunnels at 8 Chatham Sq. the home of the Wing Fat Mission.


After entering the building the guard told us not to go down stairs: there were businesses there.  I explained that we just wanted to look at the tunnel and we were a school group.  I had seen and read about the tunnel and knew that only one half of it was able to be accessed today and didn't want to miss out on it.  Here is a shot of the tunnel from the history channel show on underground NYC.



Nothing too impressive today; just offices, but what exactly happens behind all those closed doors!
(Sorry, infected by History Channel drama!)

More in the next blog entry!