USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings–many of them concentrated in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood–were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation.

Detailed explanation-2: -At the turn of the century more than half the population of New York City, and most immigrants, lived in tenement houses, narrow, low-rise apartment buildings that were usually grossly overcrowded by their landlords.

Detailed explanation-3: -Therefore, tenements were the only places new immigrants could afford. Tenements were small three room apartments with many people living in it. About 2, 905, 125 Jewish and Italian immigrants lived in the tenements on the Lower East Side.

Detailed explanation-4: -Four to six stories in height, tenements contained four separate apartments on each floor, measuring 300 to 400 square feet. Apartments contained just three rooms; a windowless bedroom, a kitchen and a front room with windows.

Detailed explanation-5: -The increased demand for cheap housing by urban migrants led to poorly built homes that inadequately provided for personal hygiene. Immigrant workers in the nineteenth century often lived in cramped tenement housing that regularly lacked basic amenities such as running water, ventilation, and toilets.