14 Henrietta Street

About

14 Henrietta Street is a social history museum located on Henrietta Street in Dublin, Ireland. The museum, which is sometimes referred to as the Tenement Museum, opened in September 2018. It tells the story of how the building turned into tenements after its Georgian times and of the many residents who occupied this house throughout the years.

History: Construction of Henrietta Street began in the 1720s, on land bought by Luke Gardiner. Numbers 13, 14 and 15 were built in the late 1740s by Gardiner as a speculative enterprise. Number 14's first occupant was Lord Richard Molesworth and his second wife Mary Jenney Usher. Other notable residents in the late 18th century included Lord John Bowes, Sir Lucius O'Brien, Sir John Hotham, and Viscount Charles Dillon. After the Act of Union in 1800, Dublin entered a period of economic decline. 14 Henrietta Street was occupied by lawyers, courts and a barracks during the 19th century. By 1877, a landlord called Thomas Vance had removed its grand staircase and divided it into 17 tenement flats of one, three and four rooms. An advert in The Irish Times from 1877 read: "To be let to respectable families in a large house, Northside, recently papered...