Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XX.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, SEPTEMBEE 22, 1877.





No. 497.





Published Weekly by

'€^t %ml Estate %UQxii %^^atmixan,

TERMS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....$10.00.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  IV.   SWEET,

Nos. 345 AND 347 Broadway.





TENEMENT   HOUSES.

The tenement house presents one of the most
formidable social questions connected with the
growth of our city. That such houses should
abound in certain wards contiguous to great
manufactories and centres of labor, such as the
docks and principal warehouses, is a matter of no
surprise, and in the infancy of their development
no doubt theywere regarded as an ephemeral phase
of habitation. Bufc the system has now grown to
proportions which seriously chaUenge attention,
and its projection has spread over the whole sm--
face of the island, invading many of the wards
which were deemed especiaUy reserved for private
residences. Indeed, the system seems to have
taken Urmer root by the lapse of time, and has
developed itself through aU the Tarious grades
and degi-ees untU it reaches the standard of the
French flat, so-caUed, or model apartment house,
destined, we are reluctantly compeUed to think,
to become a prominent feature of New York
dweUing accommodation. The development from
the lowest to the highest is so gradual and tm-
noticeable that it really becomes a difficult matter
to draw the Une between what may be termed
low tenements and high flats. This progressive
characteristic may be the result or auxUiary of
wholesome building laws and a strong public sen¬
timent. Certainly it has had the effect to improve
the quaUty of the plainest tenements, so that the
abomination which exists in our lower wards of
dUapidated and reeking rookeries may be regarded
as topical to those locaUties and not likely to find
their counterparts in the upper wards.

We are aware that moral and social phUoso-
phers have discoursed pathetically and in harrow¬
ing terms upon the evUs and disorders attending
this system, and have pictured in vivid colors the
frightful consequences which are Ukely to result
from its maintenance. No doubt these criticisms
are justified, and entitled to attention as appUed
to the lowesfc form of this sti-ucture. Those known
as "double headers," venerable with age and
pestUent with filth, are excrescences which no
civUized community should tolerate. They have
long since passed the point of amenity to rational
sanitary regulation, and unquestionably should be
closed up and discarded. Just as an unsafe or
tottering buUding would be avoided as likely to
be injurious to life and limb, so these nurseries of
disease should be condemned and thrown down
as prejudicial and fatal to health and life. There
are radical opponents of the tenement house sys¬
tem, whether of high or low degree, who urge us
to abandon the system entirely, and adhere to the
;principle of single, separate dwellings. They
invoke the co-operation of the Hea]J;h Board, and





appeal to the power of the Legislature to so limit
and define the construction of tenement houses as
to lay an actual prohibition upon them. If the
system is as impracticable, iUogical, andunhealth-
f ul as these theorists would make us believe, it
becomes important for New Yorkers to solve fche
question of then- continued and wholesale produc¬
tion. It is a notorious fact, to which we have
recently adverted in these columns, that the ordi¬
nary demand for increase of this accommodation
amounts to five hundred houses per annum, and
has been known in certain years to reach the
number of one thousand. With the popularity
which appears to attach to the model apartment
house, we may calculate upon an altogether un¬
expected increase of this class of buUdings, and
as they differ only in degree from the others,
there is every prospect that the yearly total of
this form of buUding construction wdU continue
to range between five himdred and one thousand.

We have no intention here of discussing the
sanitary features of these buUdings. We are
keenly aUve in common with all good citizens to
every question and suggestion relating to munici¬
pal and domestic sanitary science. It is our ambi¬
tion to see New York become a healthy city in pre¬
ference to its becoming a beautiful city, although
happUy the two conditions may be made to coin¬
cide. We are disposed to look upon this matter
wholly from a practical standpoint. We cannot
conceive why sanitary regiUations should intrude
so forcibly with reference to this class of structure,
and not apply with equal force to the European
hotel, the boarding house, and the place of public
assembly. As far as private interests are con¬
cerned, it would be unfair to single out any one
class of improvements to become victims of the
sanitary mania, whUe others equaUy objectionable
are allowed to pass unnoticed and unmolested.
Whatever sanitary regulations may be proposed
by the Board of Health, or sought to be enforced
by legislative enactment, shoiUd apply generaUy
to aU habitable structures, just as the buUding
laws are supposed to be applicable to the marble
palace, to the wooden hut, and toaUlntermediate
structures.

It is idle to attempt to gainsay the popiUarity
of the tenement mode of structure. It is espe¬
ciaUy and distinctively illustrative of metropoUtan
tastes on this continent, as it is in many of the
leading cities of Ehrope, and we must seek for
the cause of its popularity either in the necessities
of human affairs or in the procUvities of human
nature. The instinct which impels the citizen at
large to seek community of enjoyment in the
city, impels the citizen of slender means to seek
the economies and co-operations of a community
dwelling. Apai't from the question of health,
which must be conceded to be aU important and
controUing, we fancy that if our visionaries and
theorists would enter more sympathetically into
the daily lives and experience of the occupants of
these tenements, they would find that, barring
occasional outbreaks commonly known as tene¬
ment house rows, there is a sentiment, sociabiUty,
and mutual helpfulness which aUythein.,to that
mode of Uving in preference to the more commo¬
dious ;and.nipre isolated i^ethod of single dweU¬
ings.   We venture to assert that, if any number





of attractive cottages were coiistructed on this
island, and offered at the same rents now asked
for tenement suites, it would be quifce impos¬
sible to dislodge a large proportion of present
tenants. Instead of seeldng to stigmatize and
destroy this system, which must possess merit in
the eyes of its patrons; mstead of indulging in
sentimental tirades about a condition of life, of
which we may hare Uttle or no knowledge,
would it not be wiser to seek to adapt the condi¬
tions of these buUdings to the known wanfcs of
their occupants ?

This we conceive to have been the course adopt¬
ed by practical property owners, under the im¬
pulse of the laws, and of past agitation of the
subject. The improvement in even the com¬
moner sort of tenements is marked and mimis-
takeable. The specimens of each year seem to
be largely in advance of those of the preceding.
Greater comforts are supplied, greater afcfcenfcion
paid to ventilation and drainage, and greater
isolation of the tenements is atfcempted. It is cer¬
fcain that within the pasfc few year.s; among what
are caUed the befcfcer class of fcenements, superior
models of this form of construction have been
presented, and it is equally certain that they
have met with prompfc and grateful appreciation
on the part of tenants. It is stating only what
is generaUy and commonly known among pro¬
perty owners, when we say that oufc of a good,
substantial, weU-arranged, plain tenement house,
a larger and surer rental can be obtained than
from any other i-eiafcive piece of properfcy. The
multitudinous projections of such buUdings are
not only proof of their popularity but of their
profitableness to the landlord. It is a well recog¬
nized fact also among shrewd lenders of money on
mortgage, that reasonable loans upon this class
of property result in fewer foreclosures and more
prompt and continuous payments of interest than
upon a more pretentious class. Therefore, we de¬
precate and repel any unreasonable and bigoted
crusade against this class of property, believing
it to be indispensable to the proper development
of our city's growth, restricted as it is by the lack
of rapid transit. We would urge upon property
owners and social agitafcors, who contemplate and
advocate the destruction of the tenement house,
to apply their energies rather to its com¬
plete reformation, that it may be made
as perfect in model and equipment as
the skiU and ingenuity of architect and
buUder can make ifc. Let it be treated as the
recognized method of housing the middle and em¬
ployed classes, and let legislative enactment, if
necessary, define its mode of consfcrucfcion so as fco
render it a safe and wholesome abode for the
human race. Above aU, its consti-uction
should be made as nearly fii-e proof as possible.
Fire escapes are but a poor dependence in case of
accident, and it is requisite that the main stair¬
case be made impervious to the effects of fire.
The water .supply, drainage and ventUation of
these buUdings demand no doubtful or inade¬
quate measures. Whether built for two or more
famUies on a floor, aU tenements should be dis¬
tinctly divided in the center with such spacious
air shafts opening on exterior space as wUl guar¬
antee free circulation of fresh air.   We firmly