How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New YorkRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
History
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Poor -- New York (State) -- New York; Tenement houses -- New York (State) -- New York
The Tenement House Building Company made its "experiment" in a much
more difficult neighborhood, Cherry Street, some six years later.
Its houses shelter many Russian Jews, and the difficulty of keeping
them in order is correspondingly increased, particularly as there are
no ash-chutes in the houses. It has been necessary even to shut the
children out of the yards upon which the kitchen windows give, lest
they be struck by something thrown out by the tenants, and killed.
It is the Cherry Street style, not easily got rid of. Nevertheless,
the houses are well kept. Of the one hundred and six "apartments,"
only four were vacant in August. Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman,
the secretary of the company, writes to me: "The tenements are now
a decided success." In the three years since they were built, they
have returned an interest of from five to five and a half per cent.
on the capital invested. The original intention of making the tenants
profit-sharers on a plan of rent insurance, under which all earnings
above four per cent. would be put to the credit of the tenants, has not
yet been carried out.
[Illustration: GENERAL PLAN OF THE RIVERSIDE BUILDINGS
(A. T. WHITE'S) IN BROOKLYN.]
[Illustration: FLOOR PLAN OF ONE DIVISION IN THE RIVERSIDE
BUILDINGS, SHOWING SIX "APARTMENTS."]
A scheme of dividends to tenants on a somewhat similar plan has
been carried out by a Brooklyn builder, Mr. A. T. White, who has
devoted a life of beneficent activity to tenement building, and whose
experience, though it has been altogether across the East River, I
regard as justly applying to New York as well. He so regards it
himself. Discussing the cost of building, he says: "There is not the
slightest reason to doubt that the financial result of a similar
undertaking in any tenement-house district of New York City would be
equally good.... High cost of land is no detriment, provided the value
is made by the pressure of people seeking residence there. Rents in
New York City bear a higher ratio to Brooklyn rents than would the
cost of land and building in the one city to that in the other." The
assertion that Brooklyn furnishes a better class of tenants than the
tenement districts in New York would not be worth discussing seriously,
even if Mr. White did not meet it himself with the statement that the
proportion of day-laborers and sewing-women in his houses is greater
than in any of the London model tenements, showing that they reach the
humblest classes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account