Tenements In The 19th Century

These settlement housing complexes, along with other emerging municipally supported housing and projects, were failing considerably as time went on, in more ways than not. Ways these housing and government projects were failing were in hygiene and sanitation, in addition to perishable products that went uninspected, like meat and dairy products, which eventually made citizens very ill, and even killed a few. Local factories emitting toxic fumes also did not help the issue at all8

As the problem of overcrowding became more and more evident, several remedies were tried. There was some individual philanthropy, model dwellings were built by "philanthropic capitalists," legislation was passed prohibiting overcrowding, slums were torn down(which, of course, only worsened the problem by displacing more people), there was suburban speculative development closely following the development of the railroad which provided cheap, rapid transit to the newly-forming

There are three distinct classes of houses in the tenement-houses; the cheapest is the attic home. Three rooms is next and is usually for very poor people. The vast majority of respectable working people live in four rooms. Each of these classes reflects the needs and resources of the renters in that the attic home, for example, is generally one small room and is usually rented out by a lonely elderly person with not much money. Three rooms generally consist of a kitchen and two dark bedrooms and are usually rented out to very poor people who have a

In thirty-five years the city of New York went from less then a hundred thousand people to at least harbor a half a million souls, in

Most contracts never mentioned the safety and comfort of tenants (p. 10). In addition, many of the tenants were working and needed to be close to where they worked. The costs of living in these tenement houses were ridiculously high for the condition and size of the rooms.

As a consequence of the industrialisation in Britain, the mobilisation of masses started. Working class families migrated from other cities seeking for job opportunities and a better life. However, industrialised cities became affected by this and soon became overcrowded. Working class families used to dwell in tenements in rather poor sanitary conditions due to the lack of hygiene and artificial feeding in children. Children and their parents struggled to cope with freezing temperatures during the winter since they could not afford to pay

In the United States, there were many problems and solutions that the city dwellers and immigrants faced during the Gilded Age. During this time, most immigrants that came from Asia, Mexico, Europe, Ireland and others country were uneducated and unskilled. This led them to many problems that need to be solved for them to survive in America. One of the problems that immigrants faced was finding a job because most immigrants had a language barrier of not speaking English. The solution to their problem was ethnic neighborhood because a person who understands both languages can translate the information to find them a job. However, the job was difficult to find because there were too many immigrants looking for a job; therefore, there was less job available for them. In this oppose solution, there is some immigrant that will have to face poverty until they can keep seeking for the job available for them.

There were many others that lived in tenement housing that was owned by your employer. The problem with these homes is that they didn’t have adequate plumbing, no indoor plumbing or water supply, most were shared pumps and wells in back alleys. (Shultz, 2012) This was how many disease spread because of so many people living in such a small amount of room. These factories were unsafe and the workdays so long and grueling, that many workers died each year. Between 1880 and 1900 an average of 35,000 workers died each year. (Shultz, 2012)

Tenement buildings are run down buildings, mostly in the city. Poor families and mostly poor immigrants would live inside these buildings. Tenement buildings were very unhealthy to live in. A danger that families had to face in these buildings was that they were run down. Run down buildings could fall apart and the ceilings could be tore. Also, the buildings could have mold and people can get sick from breathing in mold, laying on mold, or ingesting mold. Tenements were also small and crowded with people, so if someone gets sick in the tenement it will spread very fast to the whole family. Tenement buildings are also very unsanitary. There were outhouses outside the buildings and these outhouses would stink up the neighborhood. Outhouses are unsanitary because the waste inside them would be stuck inside them for a long time and that can attract bugs. Furthermore, outside these tenements in the backyard, were mud and animal feces all over the place. Along with the mud and animal waste children would try to play outside but, it would be to dirty for them to go outside and play. Fires were one of the many dangers that people in tenement buildings had to face. If there was a fire it would be hard for tenement residents to evacuate the building because there was no fire escapes. Likewise, tenements residents could also have fire hazards like cigarettes or

The tenements where immigrants lived were unacceptably tiny and unsanitary. The East Side was packed at the rate of 290,000 per square mile at one point, while the greatest crowding of Old London was at the rate of 175,816 (12). Due to this overpopulation, diseases spread rapidly and killed thousands of unprotected tenants. Tenements also lacked fresh air because they did not have windows, which contributed to the fast advancement of cholera until around 1869 (14). One of the homes that Riis visited had “half a dozen persons washing, cooking, and sorting rags, lay

Massachusetts found the family of one skilled worker living “in a tenement of five rooms

The cities population was rapidly increasing due to the migration of people into cities for work and better way of living. The growth in population was also a cry out for better sustainable sanitation implementations. The soaring population saw the roads of Britain becoming slums and people were living in squalor. The houses that

In the 1800s and 1900s one problem was the poor living conditions in New York City and other cities. In the 19th century, more and more people began crowding including immigrants seeking a better life than the one they left behind. In New York City, buildings that had once been single family dwellings were increasingly divided into multiple living spaces (known as tenements) to accommodate this growing population. These buildings were most often cramped from the number of people who lived there, poorly lit and and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. Jacob August Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, muckraking journalist and social documentary photographer.

Many humongous families were forced to live in crowded, dirty apartment houses known as tenements. Due to having no plumbing, ventilation, and vermin infestation, many tenements became part of slum communities. Along with this, public transportation was highly demanded by the working class, as they depended upon it to get to work on time. The most popular form was the electric street cars in San Francisco and sub ways in Boston. However, it became very expensive for the federal government to keep these forms of transportation in tip top shape, putting more stress upon the working class families.

The wealthier an individual was, the more likely they were going to move away from the inner city. The suburbs were becoming more accessible due to the rise in public transportation (railroad, trolley, cable car). The poor however often lived in substandard tenement housing in the inner city. These poor living conditions were responsible for building codes and other regulations that altered American life. The growth in population led to the need for access to clean water, sewer drainage, communication, and a permanent police force to enforce laws.