Tenement

Tenement describes a building containing multiple rented dwellings. The term has become synonymous with the type of poorly constructed, densely developed multifamily structures in New York City in the 19th century. During that period, massive immigration combined with fundamental changes in the urban economy to create a voracious demand for rental housing. Multistory tenement buildings were built in huge numbers in response. The consequential crowding and socioeconomic problems of residents were widely publicized and became the focus for both municipal regulation and social reform during the Progressive Era.

The tenement was the precursor to the apartment building in the United States. As the need for urban housing grew, older single-family houses were subdivided into several units. Demand continued to rise, and purpose-built multifamily dwellings began appearing in New York City, the first reportedly in 1833. From that point on, tenements were built in several parts of the city, quickly and cheaply, and were fast occupied. With few exceptions, it was understood that developers seeking to maximize financial return would build as much as they could, as cheaply as possible, within the constraints of slowly emerging municipal regulation. As codes became stricter, new tenements gradually went from wood-frame firetraps containing several floors of windowless interior rooms and little if any plumbing to masonry structures with light wells, indoor bathrooms, and fire escapes.

Though tenements eventually were built in many cities in one form or another, it was New York that provided the prime conditions for their appearance, innovation, and rapid multiplication. In 1861, more than 400,000 people (half of the city's population) lived in 12,374 tenements; by 1890, more than a million people (two thirds of the population) resided in some 35,000 tenements—only 43 percent of dwellings. The residential density in parts of Manhattan was some of the highest anywhere in the world. The sheer numbers, packed into such a limited area, threatened the safety and health of all residents. Flimsy construction and improper layout resulted in many deaths from fire and building collapse. Inadequate sanitation and ventilation meant an easy time for disease and contagion. Overcrowding and poor maintenance only made these dangers worse.

Intense crowding of so many poor people into tight quarters rife with hazards brought another kind of trouble. Social ills—poverty, drunkenness, crime—worried authorities and polite society as much as the threat of disease. The rapidly deteriorating circumstances of New York's tenement dwellers gave rise to large-scale urban reform efforts by private and civic organizations, such as the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (founded 1843) and the Charity Organization Society (1870s). These and other groups of well-meaning but often prejudiced reformers performed surveys, paid household visits, and gave instruction in “proper” housekeeping methods. The filthy tenement was precisely the symbol and focus activists needed to prove their theory that improvement to the physical environment would pave the way for social uplift of the poor.

New York City's municipal government was the first to experiment with housing regulations and building codes in attempts to ease the worst of the troubles. In 1867 officials issued the first code, over the strenuous objections of a free-market-minded real estate industry. In 1879, new rules requiring exterior windows for all rooms resulted in the now-infamous “dumbbell” tenement, whose I-shaped floor plan encouraged deep and narrow air shafts between adjoining buildings. These “courts” quickly became noisy, dark, trash-filled cavities, yet another problem to be solved. State-appointed commissions were established between 1884 and 1900 to address the still-worsening conditions of so many New Yorkers. Housing expert Lawrence Veiller became influential in this ongoing work from the turn of the century into the late 1910s; he would take lessons learned in the city and publicize them in newly organized city planning circles nationwide.

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