Admin Table of Contents
What was it like inside 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. . . .
Why did poor people live in tenements?
During 1850 to 1920, people immigrating to America needed a place to live. Many were poor and needed jobs. The jobs people found paid low wages so many people had to live together. Therefore, tenements were the only places new immigrants could afford.
Why did people move into tenement houses?
A tenement typically refers to low-income housing units that are characterized by high-occupancy and below-average conditions. Tenements first arose during the industrial revolution in the U.S. and Europe as poorer people from the country flowed into cities in search of factory work and needed some place to live.
What was the situation in the tenements in New York?
Nowhere, however, did the tenement situation become as dire as it was in New York, particularly on the Lower East Side. A cholera epidemic in 1849 took some 5,000 lives, many of them poor people living in overcrowded housing.
What was life like in the original tenements?
Original tenements lacked toilets, showers, baths, and even flowing water. A single spigot in the backyard provided all the water for the building’s tenants to cook, do laundry, and clean.
How many people lived in a tenement building?
They housed a population of 2.3 million people, a full two-thirds of the city’s total population of around 3.4 million. A typical tenement building had five to seven stories and occupied nearly all of the lot upon which it was built (usually 25 feet wide and 100 feet long, according to existing city regulations).
What was the population of tenements in 1900?
By 1900, more than 80,000 tenements had been built in New York City. They housed a population of 2.3 million people, a full two-thirds of the city’s total population of around 3.4 million.