Tenement Houses

By 1900, there was more than 80,000 tenements had been built in New York City. The tenements housed in the area of 2.3 million people, a full two-thirds of the city’s total population of around 3.4 million.

Interesting details of the tenement buildings is that it often had 5 to 7 stories and occupied nearly all of the lot of which it was built.  Many tenements began as single-family dwellings, and many older structures were converted into tenements by adding floors on top or by building more space in rear-yard areas. There was often built with less than of a foot of space between buildings, causing for little air and light could get in. In many tenements only the rooms on the street got light, and the interior room had no ventilation. Tenement houses were  a quick and affordable solution to the housing problem. As tenement houses were quickly constructed, as many people as possible were packed into the smallest space possible in the hopes of maximizing the landlord’s profits