Living Conditions of Tenement Housing
As described before, the living conditions in the tenements were what we would consider inhumane today. As you can see from the image above, this is a photo of a proposed blueprint from the novel How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis. 7 In this photo you can see that only 12 out of 30 units would get sunlight at all. Meaning the other 18 units would get no sunlight whatsoever. So along with being very dark, these rooms would also be poorly ventilated since there were no windows and the tenements were built so close to each other. In this proposed blueprints the living areas were 10 x 12 feet, and the bedrooms were 6.5 x 7 feet. Could you imagine having to share that very tiny bedroom with more than one family? Including the mother, father, and however many children.
Riis also states in his novel that in some instances there were 12 adults sleeping in a room that was only 13 feet across. On top of that the infant death rate in the tenements was 1 in 10. In some instances that Riis was able to record, since the sleeping quarters were so tight, some mothers would accidentally drunkenly lay on their infants killing them in their sleep. This was one of the first things that grabbed America's attention and led to a demand for reform. 8
The photo above truly highlights the poor and tight living spaces of tenement housing. It is a photographic negative taken by the New York City Tenement House Department. In the photo you can see the “bedroom” and kitchen all very close. I added quotation marks around the bedroom, because this is barely enough to be considered a bedroom as it only has a bed in the middle of the room. You can also see all the man's dishes, clothing and irons. The ceiling of this unit was not high at all and there are no visible windows. This leads to poor ventilation from the kitchen and little to no fresh air.
According to the Library of Congress a good amount of immigrant families worked at home doing piecework. This meant that they were paid per piece that they produced. These pieces included sewing garments or creating machinery by hand. Since they worked in their rooms, this would lead to some immigrants (including children) not seeing sunlight for days. [9]
Footnotes
7 Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1890. (Riis pg.12)
8. Riis, Jacob. How the Other Half Lives. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1890. (Riis pg.162)
9 “Tenements and Toil : Italian : Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History : Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress : Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, Tenements and Toil | Italian | Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress