A Reality of Life in the Tenements

/ Kimberly

New York City built the tenements to house the millions of people who came to the United States in the late nineteenth century.

LOC

We’ve looked at photographs of the tenements here on Old Spirituals but there is an aspect I unwittingly omitted.

Tonight I was watching A Day in New York 1882 which includes a look into the tenements. These buildings had no bathrooms, of course, and the documentary mentioned off-handedly that this group of outhouses served 100 families. Yikes!

The New York Public Library. “Row of outhouses” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1902 – 1914.
The New York Public Library. “Row of outhouses” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1902 – 1914.

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