The 1811 Grid.
“The greatest evil which ever befell New York City was the division of the blocks into 25 feet by 100 feet. So true is this that no other disaster can for a moment be compared to it. Fires, pestilence and financial troubles are nothing in comparison, for from this division has arisen the New York system of tenement houses, the worst curse which ever afflicted any great community.” Architect and reformer Ernest Flagg, 1894.
By the time Mr. Flagg wrote these alarming messages about tenement housing conditions, there were already 35,000 tenement buildings in Manhattan, and by 1890, there were 43,000, and another 34,000 of them in Brooklyn. In a city where 97% were renters, two-thirds of all residents lived in tenements.
As early as 1833, the New York streets that were laid out with small building lots, meant for single-family homes and small shops, were seeing the development of taller, 4-6 story buildings to meet the needs of the growing city. At a time when only the lower-income class of people dwelt in multi-family buildings, these new taller buildings were cheap to build, cheap to maintain, and utilized space very efficiently. Lacking any zoning laws, or uniform building codes as we know of today, builders were able to fill the site from side to side, leaving only a small backyard for privies.
Tenements were simply defined as multi-family buildings for rent for three or more families having independent cooking facilities and sleeping quarters. To maximize utilization of space, the typical tenement came to be laid out with four apartments of three rooms in each. These buildings were truly of the cookie-cutter type, perhaps patterned after similar buildings in London, but probably built from stock building plans or simply from previous experience.
Builders of even limited means took great pride in their accomplishments, and would not think of constructing even a utilitarian building without ornamentation. According to a study by the Tenement Museum, by the time Lucas Glockner built his first tenement at 97 Orchard St. in 1863-64, standardized windows, doors, lumber and trims of sheet metal or cast clay were readily available. Mr. Glockner was one of the many Germans to arrive in the first wave of immigration and, led by his desire to be a land owner in the new country, built this building for his family with rooms for other renters. He applied the prevailing style of architecture, the late Victorian or Italianate style, and went on to build other tenements. This style was so prevalent, that we can find nearly identical examples throughout NYC.
The Immigration Flood
What started out as an economical response to a growing demand for starter housing, had by 1870 become a social, political, economical, health and safety dilemma. How did that come to be ?
Many histories and exposés have been written about the slum conditions within tenement neighborhoods, and the historic Lower East Side of Manhattan is the most well-known and well-deserved focus of the tenement phenomenon. In the 1890s, the Lower East side was the most densely populated neighborhood anywhere in the world, with a density of about 1089 persons per acre.
The first big wave of immigration consisted mainly of German and Irish from 1840 on. Between 1855 and 1890, Castle Garden (New York State’s official Immigration Center, now called Castle Clinton) registered 8 million immigrants. From 1892 to 1954, the federal immigration center at Ellis Island processed 12 million people. In addition, immigrants from the south as well as through Canada, traveled overland to New York City, drawn by jobs and commercial opportunities.
The city was compact, with residences and factories in close quarters. Most immigrants came with very little, and would take whatever jobs were offered, in close proximity to where they landed. The tenements in the city were a vast improvement over the ramshackle wooden houses scattered around the city. For many immigrants, the tenements may have been even better than the homes they left in the “old country,” even though most tenements had no running water (until the 1880s), indoor toilets (until the 1890s), nor electricity (until the 1910s). Large extended families in small rooms were not necessarily a problem for many, as they may have just left such tight living conditions.
As George Capsis recalls, “Half a century ago, I visited Jonas and Adolphus Meekus at 95 Orchard Street and witnessed them pull out an ice pick wedged into a cold water pipe in the ceiling to shower standing in a chipped porcelain pan.” This was the primitive bathing arrangement for this “cold-water flat” even in the 1950’s.
Fight to Reform
For the many poor immigrants, life in the tenements may have been barren and difficult, but they were there out of necessity. However for the established New York middle-class, the tenements were in a condition they could no longer tolerate. In the typical five-story tenement layout, 40 out of 60 rooms had no natural light or ventilation, nor did the stairwells and hallways. Street-facing rooms were considered premium because of the stench of the privies in the backyard. Reform movements chipped away at the underlying conditions within the tenements, pioneering the idea that governments could regulate residential conditions.
For the typical tenement dweller, this was only a temporary stop in their move to find better accommodations. For many families, taking in boarders was a necessary means of getting money to pay the rent. Often times people would sleep in shifts on the same beds, depending on their work schedules, so that more people could occupy and sleep in the same apartment. What may have been originally planned for two families per floor, now became four families per floor, with each apartment occupied by 10 or more people, in less than 325 square feet of space. The hazard of fire from wood-burning stoves and candles was a constant threat.
Jacob Riis’ exposés in the 1860s, a cholera epidemic, and the draft riots during the Civil War, all contributed to reform movements for tenements. Although small improvements were introduced to improve sanitation and ventilation from 1865 to 1900, existing tenements were typically “grandfathered” in with their existing conditions. Finally in 1901, the Tenement Law imposed new design guidelines that greatly changed new tenement construction.
Tenements Today
There are still thousands of tenements in the city today. (Hint: look for the iron fire escapes across four windows above a central entrance below.) Even some of the old law pre-1901 tenements are still in existence, but with mandatory amenities added. Many have been stripped of their ornamentation, including their ornate cornices, and door trim. In some the lower levels may have been transformed for stores and other commercial uses. Nevertheless, they are still recognizable throughout the city. There are still many on Hudson, Christopher, Greenwich, West 10th and other Streets in the West Village.
Today zoning and building laws restrict the number of people in each apartment, the minimal size of each apartment, minimum light, ventilation and fire protection. Of course, all units must have working kitchens and bathrooms. If tenements are the worst curse ever on the city, then they are necessary evils that have been reformed to better serve the city’s population.
The Tenement Museum is at 97 Orchard Street, plus a visitors’ center and offices nearby. Call (212) 431-0233, or visit http://www.tenement.org for more information.
