Tenement Housing
What tenement housing refers to are narrow, low-rise apartment buildings that began as single-family residences. Although they quickly ran out causing them to condense and add on to existing tenements and cram multiple families into what was supposed to be a one family unit. They wanted to fit as many people in one unit as possible while spending as little money as possible. 2 This led to the poor living and unsafe living conditions that will be discussed later.
Tenement housing already existed prior to this large influx of people coming to the city, but by 1900 there were around 80,000 tenements located all over New York. These tenements eventually housed a population of 2.3 million people which was two-thirds of the city's population. 3
With tenements filling up faster than the city anticipated, they had to keep adding on to the current tenements by either adding to the top or building more space in the yards of tenements. In a lot of spots around the city there was about one foot or less of space between buildings. This led to minimal air getting to a lot of the rooms, and no sunlight unless you were in a street view apartment.
As stated before there were numerous things that contributed to the tenements living conditions but overcrowding was by far the most prevalent. In a New York Times article written by Anna S. Daniels, MD, she goes in depth about all the factors that contributed to the overcrowding of tenement housing. She states “The reasons for overcrowding are many: 1st. The small incomes of families. 2nd. The high rents, a room and bedroom costing from $4 up. 3rd. The absolute necessity of being near the shop in which they are employed, this saving car fare. 4th. Their intense love of companionship-tenement house women are notorious gossips/ 5th. The difficulty of finding rooms in fairly respectable houses, at rents within their incomes, for families with young children. 6th. And (by far the gravest) the taking in of lodgers. Three-hundred and eighty-eight of my 600 women, I know positively, accommodate lodgers”. 4 With all these factors in mind it only seems possible that people would be able to afford tenement housing. Especially with rent rates increasing, general wealth increasing, yet the people on the bottom are not getting an increase in wages.
The New York State legislature created the Tenement House Committee in 1894. This committee's purpose was to go around to tenements and examine the living conditions, and how these living conditions impacted the people living there. 5 The following year the committee brought their report to the legislature which talked about the horrible living conditions and suggested a reform.
Soon after this committee brought their lengthy report to legislature, the Tenement House Act of 1901 was introduced. This act made it so there was a minimum size requirement for tenement housing and prohibited the building of dumbbell-shaped style tenement housing. 6 This act was successful in the sense that the tenements built after it adhered to it, but the previously built tenements still remained and had their issues.
Footnotes
2 “Tenement Housing.” StudySmarter US, https://www.studysmarter.us/explanations/history/us-history/tenement-housing/.
3 “Tenements.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 22 Apr. 2010, https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/tenements.
4 Daniels, Anna S. “The Tenement-House Problem.” Proquest, The New York Tmes, 11 Aug.1887,https://www.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/136741157/FA96548B40244F96PQ/8?accountid=12598.
5 St. Onge, Tim. “Making Sense of the Tenement House Committee Maps: Worlds Revealed.” The Library of Congress, 1 Dec. 2021, https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2021/12/making-sense-of-the-tenement-house-committee-maps/#:~:text=In%201894%2C%20the%20New%20York,living%20conditions%20on%20their%20residents.
6 “Tenement House Act of 1901.” The American Experience in the Classroom, https://americanexperience.si.edu/glossary/tenement-house-act-of-1901/#:~:text=a%20New%20York%20State%20Progressive,better%20ventilation%2C%20and%20indoor%20bathrooms.