Photograph by Jacob Riis of children playing in a New York City tenement, ca. 1888. Notice what they are playing with. What dangers exist? Does it
seem like fun? Do you see their feet? Who is around to supervise them? Does the ground seem safe? Where should kids be during the day?
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Photograph by Jacob Riis of a tenement at Baxter Street in New
York City, a neighborhood Riis covered during his job as a
police reporter in the late 1880s. The conditions he witnessed in
New York tenements led him to write a photographic exposé,
How the Other Half Lives (1890). Notice the conditions of the
courtyard and what’s in it. Notice how many people are in this
relatively small space. What do you see in the foreground? What
material are the stairs made out of? How could this be a
problem? In 1871, a fire in Chicago destroyed most of the city.
In this Jacob Riis photograph, immigrants crowd into an unofficial boarding house in a New York City tenement during the late
1800s. What happens if one man gets sick? What’s in the bottom left hand corner of the room? How many men are there? Is there
ventilation?
Jacob Riis photograph of ​garbage​ on East Fifth Street, one of New York City's many tenement areas during the late 19th century. What do you think
is living in a street that looks like this? What happens when it rains? Snows? What will spread if this is piling up? What will it smell like?
Jacob Riis portrait of an immigrant mother and child in a New York City basement tenement, ca. 1890. ​Infant death rate in the tenements was as
high as 1 in 10.​ Do they have proper ventilation? Does it look like they have comfortable places to sleep? What’s in the bottom right hand corner?
Poor residents of a New York City tenement eke out a living making neckties in a local workshop during the late 1880s. Photographed by Jacob Riis,
Where was this workshop? Do you think this building was designed as a workspace? Is the space large enough for the people? Is it clean?
The Problem
In the 19th century, Urbanization occurred as more and more people began crowding into America's cities, including thousands
of newly arrived immigrants seeking a better life than the one they had left behind in Europe. In New York City--where the population
doubled every decade from 1800 to 1880--buildings that had once been single-family homes often held multiple families to
accommodate this growing population. Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings--many of them concentrated
in the city's Lower East Side neighborhood--were often cramped, poorly lit and had no indoor plumbing or proper ventilation. By
1900, some 2.3 million people (a full two-thirds of New York City's population) were living in tenement housing.
1910 Tenement Housing Act
The law that had the greatest impact on these tenements (apartments) was the Tenement House Act of 1901. This law rose as a
result of rapidly deteriorating conditions. The Act basically outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25-foot wide lots, required
improved sanitary arrangements, access to light and mandated (forced) changes in pre-existing tenements.
Parts of the Act
1) Hallways had to have enough light in them to read without the aid of artificial lights.
2) Owners were required to provide a light near the stairs on both the first and second floors.
3) Owners had to create a skylight over the top of stairs.
4) All bedrooms were required to have a 3’ x 5’ window or larger, that could be opened and closed.
5) An air shaft was built for ventilation into each apartment. This allowed air to flow in and out.
6) One bathroom with a toilet connected to the sewer system was required for every two families.
7) Metal fire escapes had to be added to all tenement buildings.
Electricity did NOT have to be added to the buildings until 1918. Landlords were not happy about paying for the changes and often
took the city to court. But, the new law did make housing safer for millions of people and similar reforms happened around the world.
Answer the following questions on a separate piece of paper. Compare the tenement housing act to your ideas.
1. How do your laws compare to those actually implemented in 1901? Similar? Different? Explain.
2. Explain which set of laws (yours or NYCs) do you think best provided for the welfare of the tenement dwellers?
3. Which set of laws (yours or NYCs) do you think were more easily carried out by landlords? Explain.
4. What do you think were the long-term effects of the 1901 Tenement House Act?