During class, we talked about city life during the Gilded Age (the late 19th century). During this time period, the nation's population was growing rapidly with increasing amounts of people going from the rural to urban areas. One prominent aspect of this time period was housing. With so many people, the number of spaces that was suitable before couldn't fit everyone that was coming in now. For those who weren't rich enough to afford their own homes or pay much rent, they had to resort to less desirable accommodations. One of such areas was the tenement system.
The perfect solution to the ever growing city population was the creation of the Dumbbell Tenement: a cheap lot that is stacked vertically instead of horizontally, capable of fitting as many people as possible in as little area as possible. Built on a 25 square foot lot, the tenements were typically 5 to 8 stories high, with not much ventilation, and few air shafts. There was normally only one or two toilet. Diseases spread because they lived in close quarters. Bad sewage systems. There was little light and the air quality was very bad. In Chicago, the Fire of 1871 spread because the houses, made of wood, were so closely stacked together. The main reason they were successful was because they were cheap, so poor people could afford the dreadful houses.
The biggest response to the tenement system was the New York State Tenement House Act of 1901. It banned poorly ventilated tenements due to health concerns, effectively ending the practice for owners unwilling to make the housing more bearable. In the 1920s, apartments would be the more interesting topic and would scrape many of the tenements. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Plan would implement government supported public housing. These actions would make a great step in achieving rights for the poor.
Sources:
http://ci.columbia.edu/0240s/0243_2/0243_2_s1_2_text.html
http://www.history.com/topics/tenements
This is a great summary of the effects of the increasing population. I liked how you went further in depth than what we talked about in class when it came to the living situations. I liked how you described how the tenements looked and what a tenement was.
ReplyDeleteAdding on, I think that the tenement issue is a reason why this historical American period became known as the "Gilded Age." The word "gilded" means a false brilliance. This can be seen through the tenement issue, where the quickly growing population was the brilliance that was usually revealed on the surface, while there was a time of many social problems like unsanitary living conditions, which resembled how the country wasn't what it really appeared to be on the outside.
ReplyDelete