The Tenement Museum Blog reminds us that surviving a summer like the one we’ve had this year would have been a lot harder without a.c., or even fans. In fact, many people did not survive the heat back in 1896. They write: The Great Heat Wave of 1896 lasted from August 4-14 and may have killed as many as 1,500 people in the city, with temperatures reaching an astounding 120 degrees Fahrenheit inside the hot, unventilated tenements on the Lower East Side.
Hear more about it from author Edward Kohn in conversation with historian Richard Greenwald, inside the air conditioned gift shop at the Tenement Museum (108 Orchard) at 6:30pm.
