Many New York City renters will recognize this scenario: You’re on your fourth apartment tour of the day when a broker unlocks the front door and ushers you into the kitchen. Often used as an example of what New Yorkers must endure, navigating an eccentric kitchen has become an experience that unites lifelong residents and uninitiated transplants. After the passage of the New York Tenement House Act of 1901, all residences were required to install a sink and bathtub to meet the city’s sanitation standards. In tenements across the Lower East Side and East Village, bathtubs fit only in the kitchen, often the apartment’s largest room. Despite these quirks, New Yorkers have found ways to make do — and even fall in love with — their wacky kitchens.

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Persons: Kitchens Organizations: New Locations: New York City, York, Side