What was the reason for tenement housing?

What was the reason for tenement housing?

With rapid urban growth and immigration, overcrowded houses with poor sanitation gave tenements a reputation as slums. The expression “tenement house” was used to designate a building subdivided to provide cheap rental accommodation, which was initially a subdivision of a large house.

How did tenement laws help to change living conditions in cities?

Two major studies of tenements were completed in the 1890s, and in 1901 city officials passed the Tenement House Law, which effectively outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25-foot lots and mandated improved sanitary conditions, fire escapes and access to light.

Why was tenement housing bad?

Tenement buildings were constructed with cheap materials, had little or no indoor plumbing and lacked proper ventilation. These cramped and often unsafe quarters left many vulnerable to rapidly spreading illnesses and disasters like fires.

What was it like to live in a tenement?

Apartments contained just three rooms; a windowless bedroom, a kitchen and a front room with windows. A contemporary magazine described tenements as, “great prison-like structures of brick, with narrow doors and windows, cramped passages and steep rickety stairs. . . .

What changes did the tenement Housing Act of 1901 contribute to today’s housing design?

The New York State Tenement House Act of 1901 was one of the first laws to ban the construction of dark, poorly ventilated tenement buildings in the state of New York. This Progressive Era law required new buildings to have outward-facing windows, indoor bathrooms, proper ventilation, and fire safeguards.

What was the outcome of the Tenement House Act of 1901?

a New York State Progressive Era law which outlawed the construction of the dumbbell-shaped style tenement housing and set minimum size requirements for tenement housing. It also mandated the installation of lighting, better ventilation, and indoor bathrooms.

What was the health problem in the tenements?

Diphtheria, typhoid, cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever regularly appeared in working-class neighborhoods. 2 But as sanitary reformers battled employers, such as those in the meat-packing business, urban housing—and tenements in particular—emerged as a central arena for legitimizing the public health movement. 3

Why did the cities put regulations on tenements?

Cities’ public health committees first put regulations on the tenements as a measure to stop the spread of disease through the buildings and the city. Disease had become a severe problem among the immigrants. The infant mortality rate was so high that the people of the cities were taking notice and demanding something to be done.

When did New York City start building tenements?

The most serious housing problems began in New York about 1840 when the first tenements were built. In 1867, a report by the New York Metropolitan Board of Health on living conditions in tenements convinced the New York State legislature to pass the Tenement Housing Act of 1867 [ 2]. The principal requirements of the act included the following:

What was the tenement like in New York?

Tenement housing offered few advantages other than cheap rent. The buildings were erected close together so that there were no lawns. The Lower East Side of New York at the turn of the century was a typical tenement ghetto (a poor, crime-ridden section of the city).