What Is a Tenement?
Let me tell you directly: a tenement can mean any multi-occupancy residential rental building, but you probably associate it with those crowded, run-down structures offering low-quality living conditions.
These buildings trace back to the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, when people flooded into cities. Today, the term often points to inner-city or low-income housing projects.
Key Takeaways
- Tenements may refer to low-income housing units with high occupancy and below-average conditions.
- This type of housing dates to the 19th century but persists in the 21st century as low-income complexes.
- They first appeared during the Industrial Revolution, providing affordable options for immigrants seeking work.
Understanding Tenements
In New York City, for instance, tenements were low-rise apartments often without indoor plumbing, featuring cramped spaces with poor ventilation and little natural light. The Tenement Act of 1901 changed that by requiring indoor plumbing for toilets, fireproofing, and better ventilation and lighting.
Historically, 'tenement' meant any permanent rental property, including houses, land, or buildings with attached rights. In Scotland, it's still used that way for multi-occupancy buildings, and in legal terms, you might hear of a 'dominant tenement' benefiting from an easement or a 'servient tenement' burdened by one.
In the U.S., though, it mainly describes crowded, dilapidated apartment buildings for low-income tenants. These have multiple units under one roof, separated by walls for privacy, with rental contracts specifying lease periods and costs.
Fast Fact
Here's a key definition from the Tenement House Act of 1867: a tenement is any house, building, or portion rented or occupied as home by more than three families living independently, doing their own cooking, or by more than two families per floor sharing halls, stairways, yards, water-closets, or privies.
The History of Tenements
During the Industrial Revolution, tenements housed working-class families moving to cities for manufacturing jobs. Some were new builds, others repurposed middle-class houses or warehouses, called 'rookeries' after bird nests.
In 1867, New York's Tenement House Act defined tenements as buildings rented to at least three independent families sharing common areas. Late 19th-century tenements differed from middle-class apartments.
Famous ones on Manhattan's Lower East Side were three- or four-story buildings turned into 'railroad flats' with windowless rooms. They were poorly regulated, prone to collapse or fire, with communal water taps and privies in alleys. An 1865 report noted 500,000 people in tenements, many immigrants, making the area one of the densest populated spots on earth.
The 1901 Tenement Act brought major improvements, requiring better lighting, fireproofing, and indoor toilets connected to sewers.
What Is Tenement Housing?
In the 19th century, it meant single-family buildings divided into multiple spaces—narrow, low-rise apartments in 'railroad style' with rooms lacking windows and ventilation. They were overcrowded and often without indoor plumbing.
Are There Tenements Today?
Legally, 'tenement' means an apartment building with multiple dwellings, typically a few per floor sharing an entry staircase. Some still use it to refer to low-income housing.
Are Tenements Illegal?
No, tenements as apartment complexes weren't illegal, but their conditions were often unsanitary and dangerous. The 1901 Act protected residents by mandating fireproofing, indoor plumbing, and ventilation.
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