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ADVANCE SHEETS

OF PART OF

The Report of the
yvewLenement House
Commission.

Printed privately for use of the Commission.

a
 
To THE GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
New York:

The Tenement House Commission, appointed under
Chapter 279 of the Laws of 1900, entitled ‘‘ An Act ap-
pointing a Committee to examine into the tenement house
question in cities of the first class, and to report to the
next Legislature a code of tenement house laws,” has the
honor to submit its report. It was made the duty of the
Commission to ‘‘ make a careful examination into the tene-
ment houses in cities of the first class; their condition as
to the construction, healthfulness, safety, rentals and the
effect of tenement house life on the health, education,
savings and morals of those who live in tenement houses,
and all other phases of the so-called tenement house ques-
tion in these cities that can affect the public welfare.”
The Commission was directed to make a full report of its
work, with ‘‘such recommendations as it deems wise to
enable the best and highest condition for tenement house
life in said cities to be attained.”

This report is divided into the following parts:

I.—The general report of the Commission.

II.—A summarized statement of the proceedings of the
Commission.

III.-—The new code of tenement house laws, and other
specific legislation recommended.

IV.—The results of inquiries or investigations made by
the Commission or at its instance, which have been made
the subject of special reports. These special reports are
as follows:

(1.) Tenement House Reform in New York, 1834 to 1900.

(2.) A History of Tenement House Legislation in New
York, 1852 to 1900.

(8.) Housing Conditions in Buffalo.

(4.) Housing Conditions and Tenement Laws in Leading
American Cities.
2

(5.) Housing Conditions and Tenement Laws in Leading
European Cities.

(6.) A Statistical Study of New York’s Tenement
Houses.

(7.) The Non-enforcement of the Tenement House Laws
in New York, in New Buildings.

(8.) Tenement House Fires.

(9.) Tenement House Fire Escapes.

(10.) Back-to-back Tenements.

(11). Results of an Investigation of the Sanitation of a
number of Typical Tenement Houses.

(12.) Small Houses for Workingmen in New York—will
the housing problem be solved by their erection?

(13.) Financial aspects of recent Tenement House Opera-
tions in New York.

(14.) The Speculative Building of Tenement Houses.
(15.) Tenement Evils as seen by the Tenants.

(16.) Tenement Evils as seen by an Inspector.

(17.) Tuberculosis and the Tenement House Problem.

(18.) The relation of Tuberculosis to the Tenement
House Problem.

(19.) Prostitution as a Tenement House Evil.

(20.) Policy—a Tenement House Evil.

(21.) Tenement House Labor.

(22.) Public Baths.

(23.) Parks and Play Grounds for Tenement Districts.

(24.) A plan for Tenements in connection with a
Municipal Park.

(25.) Foreign Immigration and the Tenement House in
New York City.

(26.) The Tenements and Poverty.

The testimony given at public hearings is appended.
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THE GENERAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSION.

OF all the great social problems of modern times incident
to the growth of cities, none is claiming public atten-
tion in a greater degree than that of the housing of the
working people. Mere housing, however, that is, merely
providing shelter, does not solve this problem. It only
aggravates it by herding men and women together under
conditions which inevitably tend to produce disease and
crime. It is only by providing homes for the working
people, that is, by providing for them not only shelter,
but shelter of such a kind as to protect life and health and
“i make family life possible, free from surroundings
which tend to immorality, that the evils of crowded city
life can be mitigated and overcome. Nor does it concern
only the working classes who are to be sheltered. It is of
vital moment to all the inhabitants of every city, and par-
ticularly to those of every city governed by democrati
rule. Homes are quite as much needed to make good cit-
izens as to make good men. According as the working
people are provided with better or poorer homes will the
government, morals and health of a city be better or
worse.

In most cities the housing problem is the problem of the
small house rather than of the large tenement. It is
such in Philadelphia; it is such to a large extent in Buf-
falo. In New York, however, as in no other city in the
country, it is the problem of the tenement house—the
problem of the five, six or even seven story building
usually on a lot twenty-five feet-in-width and with as
many as three or four families on each floor.

Nothing short of a personal inspection of the great tene-
ment districts of New York can give any adequate realiza-
tion of the importance of the questions involved—ques-
tions affecting not only the health, morality and welfare
4

of the people living in those districts, but also having a
most potent influence upon the political conditions of the
whole city and of the entire State. A city which in the
size of its population and number of its voters already
includes about one-half of the inhabitants and voters of
the State must necessarily exercise a powerful influence in
State affairs. Of the 3,437,202 inhabitants of New York
City, 2,372,079, or more than two-thirds, live in tenement
houses, as these houses are defined by law. In Greater
New York there are 82,652 of these buildings, of which
42,700 are located in Manhattan, 33,771 in the Borough of
Brooklyn, 4,365 in the Borough of The Bronx, 1,398 in
the Borough of Queens, and 418 in the Borough of
Richmond.

The housing problem is not a new question. It began
to claim attention in England and in this country in the
early part of the 19th Century, and as the growth of cies

s developed has claimed attention more and more.
So much effort has been expended in European cities to
remedy the evils of bad housing that the Commission had
hoped to find in such European cities useful suggestions

d precedent. It has accordingly carefully investigated
the housing conditions and tenement regulations of tHe
large cities of Europe and of the leading cities of this coun-
try. This study has not been without valuable result in
the direct line of inquiry, but it has demonstrated beyond
question that it isin New York that the most serious tene-
ment house problem in the world is to be found, and the

Commission finds that to the history of tenement house:

, development and regulation in this city it must look for
present conclusions and for the remedies for these evils.

Attention was first called to the subject here in 1834 by

the City Inspector of the Board of Health at a time when

the population of New York was about 270,000. The first

-e

Legislative Commission of inquiry was appointed in 1856,

The Council of Hygiene of-the Citizens’ Association made

its comprehensive-report-on’ this subject in.1865. The first
tenement house law followed in.1867. The first practical
illustration of improved methods of construction was made

aaex)
SS Ueaimon  ane
an PREDICA So er
5

in Br in 1876 and did much to stimulate tenement
house reform in . The second tenement 2
house law was enacted in 1879. The second State Com-
mission was appointed in_1884 and its recommendatio
led to important amendments of the law in_1887. The
third State Commission-was appointed in.1894, and asa
result of its labors the tenement house law was amended «
and other desirable legislation was secured in the follow-
ing year.

To the and to the Commission of
..1894,.as well as to the first Assembly Commission of 1856,
and the many faithful workers who followed them, this
Commission wishes to publicly state its obligations and
to place itself only in the line of succession. The
legislation which has followed the report of each Com-
mission and the public sentiment which their action has
atYased, has been in the main progressive, but too often
the gain made at the time when public opinion has been
centered on this subject has been lost when this interest
has been diverted and the Sm left open for selfish inter-

 

ests to assert themselves. <Some of the evils of fifty years
aa cellar dwellings and lack of sanitary arrangements,
have been corrected in some degree, but the. same evils
which seemed most serious to the first Commission of 1856
—lack of Tight and_ ventilation ficient prote

a ainst fire sucroun 80. ~aoclean_and uncomfortable

 

cn of the ee day ae have. been intensified by the
more recent types of tenements. “Although additional
~“Tegislation has been had upon “these subjects at differ-
ent intervals it has not kept pace with the conditions
sought to be remedied. In-1864-the tenement population
of New York was 486,000 and the number of tenement
houses.15,511. In 1900 the tenement population of the
same city, now the Borough of Manhattan, was 1,585,000
and the number of tenement houses 42,700. With all the
remedial legislation and regulation which has been put
into operation since the enactment of the first tenement
house law in 1867, the present type of tenement house—
6

the six-story double- decker—occupying seventy-five per
cent. of a twenty- five foot ao with, -four_ families on a.

less fire ‘srokecbiOn: and less ei aelie surroundings th than
the average tenement of fifty years ago, which was lower
» in height, occupied less lot space and sheltered fewer
people. ~ oy
--- That there are great evils in our tenement house condi-
tions, and that these evils should be remedied, isa general
proposition universally accepted, but like similar generali-
ties its acceptance leads nowhere unless particular evils
are defined and particular remedies pointed out. The first
question is, therefore, what are the particular evils to be
remedied?

No one who is at all familiar personally with tenement
house life in New Yerk; no one who without personal
familiarity reads the description of tenement house its
from the point of view of the tenant and inspector con-
tained in'the special paper on this subject which forms
part of this report, can fail to realize that the chief evilto
be remedied is the tenement house itself.
~—| Adequate light and air, perfect sanitation, even passa-

ble home environment, cannot be provided by the best
tenement house which is commercially possible on Manhat-
tan Island—that is, by the best tenement house which can
be built with sufficient prospect of income to warrant its
erection. Such a tenement house, even if only five stories

igh, occupying only sixty-five per cent. of the lot and
accommodating only three families on a floor, situated as
it either is at the outset or soon will be, among other
buildings of the same or greater height, must necessarily
lack, especially in its lower apartments, some of these —
sirable conditions. Ideal conditions. i icul
can only be attained when gach family -oceupies. its resi
separate house- The fewer families in each house and
the larger air space around it, the nearer approach to
this ideal.

Inquiry naturally directs itself, therefore, first to the
question whether the inherent evils of the tenement

 

 
 

 

 

The most densely populated spot in the world, Hester Street.
7

house system can be remedied, and whether we can look
forward at any near future to housing the working
classes of New York in separate or smaller houses as the
laboring men of many other cities are accommodated.
The near realization of rapid transit and closer and quicker
connection with the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens by
bridge and tunnel would seem to make such a develop-
ment possible.

Undoubtedly better transit facilities will enable some of
the more ambitious and better paid tenement dwellers to
provide themselves with separate homes in the outlying
districts, but from the special inquiry made into this sub-
ject by the Commission, the results of which are sum-
marized in its special report on small houses, it is evident
that the bulk of the laboring classes will still continue to
live in tenement houses.

A family which now pays from $12 to $18 a month for
its apartment in a tenement house must be able to pay at
least. $20 a month for a separate house in the suburbs, a
reason sufficient in itself to keep it in the tenement.
Other influences—familiarity with tenement life, which
however distasteful to previous generations, has now per-
force grown into a habit, the natural inclination of our
large foreign population to group itself in neighborhoods
on national lines, and other causes equally potent, all tend
in the same direction.

Concluding, therefore, that the tenement house system
must continue in New York, the question presents itself,
what evils not inherent in the system admit of remedy?
These are the practical questions before the Commission.
The most serious evils may be grouped as follows:

(1,) Insufficiency of light and air due to narrow courts
or air shafts, undue height, and to the occupation by the
building or by adjacent buildings of too great a proportion
of lot area,

(2.) Danger from fire.

(3.) Lack of separate water-closet and washing facili-
ties.
(4.) Overcrowding.
(5.) Foul cellars and courts, and other like evils, which
may be classed as bad housekeeping.

Of the three first named groups of evils, all are evils of
construction which admit of remedy both in buildings
hereafter constructed and those which already exist, if
that remedy can wisely be applied.

In new buildings it would be possible to insure light and
air by preventing the occupation of more than one-half
the lot area, and by prescribing larger courts. It would
be possible to make fire-proof construction mandatory,
and thus minimize all danger from fire. In old build-
ings it would be possible to cut in courts or air shafts
so that every living or sleeping room should have a
window opening to the outer air, and it would be possi-
ble to substitute fireproof stairs for the wooden stairs now
used in these buildings. All these changes would be de-
sirable. The immediate effect, however, of seeking to

enforce them at.the present time, in thé case-of-new tene-
ments,. would. probably--be..to... prevent their_erection by
making them-commercially too costly, and as respects the

old tenements to vacate many of them for living: pur-
poses, because the cost of such alterations would be more
than would be justified by any probable revenue that
could be expected from them after the changes had been
made.

Tenement house reform would not be practical which
went so far as to put a stop to building new tenement
houses. Nor would it be practical if it compelled such ex-
tensive changes in old tenements that owners would turn
them to other uses.

The result in both cases would be to decrease the supply
of tenement accommodation, and to either force more
people into this diminished space, which would mean
more overcrowding, or to force some people out, in which
case competition would raise rents.

Reform of such a kind would harm most-the very per-
sons it sought to aid.
 

 

Typical Dumb-bell Tenement, built under the present law.
9

The only difference of opinion between the members of
the Commission has been not as to what conditions were
desirable but as to how far these conditions could be at-
tained without producing such consequences; that is, how
far present evils could be prevented in new buildings with-
out increasing their cost to such an extent as to practi-
cally prevent their erection, and how far they could be
remedied in old buildings without such an expense as to be
practically prohibitory, and to prevent their continuing to
be occupied for living purposes.

For instance, there is not a member of the Commission
who would not gladly limit the height of non-fireproof
tenements to four stories, if it were practicable so to do,
and, indeed, one leading architect has suggested that such

limitation shouldbe placed at three stories.

THE TYPICAL NEW YORK TENEMENT.

Some knowledge of the prevailing kind of New York
tenement house must necessarily precede any considera-
tion of its evils and their remedies. It is known as the
** double decker,” ‘‘dumbbell” tenement, a type which
New York has the unenviable distinction of having ins
_vented, Its a type unknown to any other city in Amer merica,
or Europe. =="

——~Although the housing problem is one of the leading politi-
cal questions of the day in England the conditions which
exist + are ideal compared to the conditions in New
York#The tall tenement house accommodating as many
as 100 to 150 persons in one building, extending up six or
seven stories into the air, with dark, unventilated rooms,is
unknown in London or in any other city of Great Britain.
It was first constructed in New York about the year 1879
and with slight modifications has been practically the sole
type of building erected since, and is the type of the present
day. It is a building usually five or six or even seven
stories high, about 25 feet wide, and built upon a lot of
land of the same width and about 100 feet deep. The

~*
10

building as a rule extends back 90 feet, leaving the small
space of 10 feet “unoccupied at the-rear-so that the back
rooms may obtain some light and air. This space has
continued to be left open only because the law has com-
pelled it. Upon the entrance floor there are generally two
__Stores, one on each side of the building; and thése some-
times have two or three living rooms back of them. In
the centre is the entrance hallway, along corridor less
than three feet wide and extending back 60 feet_in length.
This hellswap-ie-nesrly_alwava totally dark, receiving no
light except that from the street door and a faint light
that comes from the small windows opening upon the
stairs, which are placed at one side of the hallway. Hach
floor above is generally divided into four sets of apart-
ments, there being seven rooms on each side of the hall,
extending back from the street to the rear of the building.
The front apartments generally consist of four rooms each.
and the rear apartments of three rooms, making all together
fourteen-rooms upon each figory or in a seven-stor se
84 rooms.exclusive of the stores and rooms back of them.
Of these fourteat FOoWie On éach floor, only four receive di-
rect light and air from the street or from the small yard at
the back of the building. Generally, along each side of the
building is what is termed an ‘‘air shaft,” being aninden-
tation of the wall to a depth.of about 28 inches, and ex-
tending in length for a space of from 50 to 60 feet. This
shaft is entirely enclosed on four sides, and is, of course,
the full height of the building, often from 60 to 72 feet
high. The ostensible purpose of the shaft is to provide
light and air to the five rooms on each side of the house
which get no direct light and air from the street or yard;
but as the shafts are narrow and high, being enclosed on
all four sides, and without any intake of air at the bottom,
these rooms obtain, instead of fresh air and sunshine, foul
air and semi-darkness. Indeed, it is questionable whether
the rooms would not be more habitable and more sanitary
with no shaft at all, depending for their light and air
solely upon the front and back rooms into which they
open, for each family besides having the foul air from its

 

 

 
11

own rooms to breathe, is compelled to breathe the emana-

tions from the rooms of some eleven other families; nor,

is this all, these shafts act as conveyors of noise, odors

and disease, and when fire breaks out serve as inflammable

flues, often rendering it impossible to save the buildings
rom destruction.

A family living in such a building pays for four rooms of ).
this kind a rent of from $12 to $18.a._ month. Of these four
rooms only two are large enough to be deserving of the
name.of.rooms.. The front one is generally about 10 feet 6
inches wide by 11 feet 3 inches long; this the family use
asa parlor, and often at night, when the small bed rooms
opening upon the air shaft are so close and ill-ventilated
that sleep is impossible, mattresses are dragged upon the
floor of the parlor and there the family sleep, all together
in one room. In summer, the small bedrooms are so hot
and stifling that a large part of the tenement house popu-
lation sleep on the roofs, the sidewalks, and the fire-
escapes. The other room, the kitchen, is generally
the same size as the parlor upon which it opens, and
receives all its light and air from the ‘‘air shaft,” or such
a supply as may come to it from the front room. Behind
these two rooms are the bedrooms, go called, which are
hardly more than closets, being each about 7 feet
wide and 8 feet 6 inches long, hardly large enough to con-
tain a bed. These rooms get no light and air whatsoever
except that which comes from the ‘‘air shaft,” and except

-omthé highest_stories are. generally-almost totally dark.
Upon the opposite side of the public hall is an apartment
containing four exactly similar rooms, and at the rear of the
building there are, instead of four rooms on each side of the
hallway, but three, one of the bedrooms being dispensed
with. For these three rooms in the rear the rent is
generally throughout the city from $10 to $15 a month.
In the public hallway opposite the stairs, there are pro-
vided two water-closets, each water-closet being used in
common by two families and being lighted and venti-
lated by the ‘“‘air shaft,” which also lights and ventilates
all the bedrooms. In the newer buildings there is fre-
 
   
 
 
  
 

|

12

quently provided in the hallway between the two closets a
dumbwaiter for the use of the tenants.

It is not to be wondered, therefore, that with such a
kind of tenement house repeated all over the different
parts of this city, and forming practically the only kind of
habitation for the great mass of the people, the tenement
house system has become fraught with so much danger
to the welfare of the community. The effect upon the
city population of the form of congregated living found
in our tenement houses is to be seen not only in its results
on the health of the people, but upon their moral
and social condition as well. The public. mind_is jus
now especially aroused over the manifestation of one
special form of vice in tenement districts, It is

not to be wondered that vice in various forms

should manifest itself in the tenements; the wonder
is that there is not more vice in such districts. The
enement districts of New York are places in which
thousands of people are living in the smallest space
in which it is possible for human beings to exist—
crowded together in dark, ill-ventilated rooms in many
of which the sunlight never enters and in most of which
fresh air is unknown. ‘They are centres of disease,
poverty, vice and crime, where it is a marvel not
that some children grow up to be thieves, drunkards and
prostitutes, but that so many should ever grow up to

-be decent and self-respecting. All the conditions which

surround childhood, youth and womanhood in New York’s
crowded tenement quarters make for unrighteousness.
They also make for disease. There is hardly-a-tenement
house in which there has not been at least one case of
pulmonary ‘tuberculosis within the last five years, and in
some houses there have been as great a number as
twenty-two different cases of this terrible disease. From
the tenements there comes a stream of sick, helpless
people to our hospitals and dispensaries, few of whom
are able to afford the luxury of a private physician,
and some houses are in such bad sanitary condition that

few people can be seriously ill in them and get well;
° “MEI JUaSOld at} JapuN ying ‘s}usUAUA] ,, ]2G-GuING ,, JO ¥01d SOUA V

      
13

from them also comes a host of paupers and charity
seekers. The most terrible of all the features of tene-
ment house life in New York, however, is the indiscrimi-
nate herding of all kinds of people in close contact, the
fact, that, mingled with the drunken, the dissolute, the
improvident, the diseased, dwell the great mass of the
respectable workingmen of the city with their families.

THE LINE OF REMEDIAL ACTION.

That many of the evils of such a tenement house system
can be remedied by legislation there is no doubt. They
have arisen largely because of the absence of wise, re-
strictive Jegislation. That it is the duty of the State to
remedy these evils can also not be doubted, and the
State has recognized this duty repeatedly for the past
forty years. This Commission, therefore, has sought
with the utmost care to determine by what means these
evils can be remedied. It has studied the work done by
all previous Commissions since 1884. It has studied all
laws that have been enacted on this subject in this State
since 1852; it has investigated the way in which the
workingman is housed in twenty-seven of the largest
cities in this country, as well as the laws upon this sub-
ject in these cities. It has also endeavored to avail it-

self of the experience of European communities in this

regard, and two of the members of the Commission
have had the opportunity of personally investigating
housing conditions in Europe. The laws in leading Eu-
ropean cities bearing upon this subject have also been
carefully reviewed. The Commission has sought at all
times the freest and frankest expression of the views of
every person interested in this subject and of those who
have special knowledge or-experience bearing upon it and
has done its utmost to secure suggestions and expressions
of opinion both publicly and privately.

From a review of the efforts made to secure tenement
house reform in this city in the past sixty years, the Com-

\ S45bys
A
14

mission is of opinion that the failure to accomplish more
has been partly because of the lack of continuous effort.
The efforts made have been spasmodic and in nearly every
case at intervals of ten or five years. The subject is one
of the most difficult and complicated social problems in
existence, and requires constant and continuous attention.
It is not too late, however, to remedy many of the evils
and mitigate others.

The tenement house problem in New York is a three-
fold one and its solution lies along three definite lines of
action:

First.—To provide proper types of new tenement houses
for the future by means of adequate restrictive legislation,
and to forbid the erection of any others.

Seconp.—To remedy the errors of past years by altering
and improving old tenement houses so as tomake them fit
for human habitation.

Tuirp.—To maintain present and future tenement
houses in sanitary condition by adequate supervision.

The present tenement laws are a series of amendments
to existing statutes, and since the passage of the first
tenement house act have never been codified. The result
has been that the laws contain many conflicting sections
and many serious inconsistencies, and are in their require-
ments often illogical, with the still further defect that they
are imperfectly arranged and often couched in language
so involved that it is almost impossible for the ordinary
builder or architect to understand them without calling in
the services of a lawyer. The Commission, therefore, has
prepared a complete code of tenement house laws, and has
sought to so arrange and express their various provisions
as to make the law plain to all persons. In so doing it has
endeavored, so far as possible, to retain the lanzuage and
substance of past legislation.

As has been stated, the greatest evil of the present day
is the lack of light and air, and it is in the new type of
building which is being erected at the present time that
this evil is especially felt. Asa result of this lack of light
    
 

 

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Tuberculosis Map.

Each dot represents one case of Tuberculosis reported to Health Department in 5 years.
15

and air, we find that the dread disease of pulmonary tuber-
culosis has become practically epidemic in this city. The
testimony taken before the Tenement House Commission
at its public hearings, in which leading physicians and
specialists upon this subject testified, shows that there are
over 8,000 deaths a year in New York City due to this dis-
ease alone; that there are at least 20,000 cases of well-de-
veloped and recognized pulmonary tuberculosis in the city
and in addition a large number of obscure or incipient
cases. The connection between this disease and the char-
acter of the tenement houses in which the poor people live
is of the very closest.

The work of the Committee of 1865 was due in large
part to the epidemics of typhus fever, smallpox and sim-
ilar diseases existing at that time, caused largely by the
unsanitary condition of the tenement houses. The chief
problem then was to do away with filth and _pro-
vide tenement houses with proper sanitary conveniences.
To-day the problem is different. There are no longer
epideniics of typhus and typhoid fever in this city, al-
though recent developments have shown how easy it is
for a disease like smallpox to find a foothold in the tene-
ments despite the watchful and efficient measures of the
Board of Health. There exists at the present time, how-
ever, a much more serious epidemic caused by the peculiar
evils of the tenement houses at the present time—pul-
monary tuberculosis. -

It was the testimony of all the physicians who testified
before the Tenement House Commission that the con-
ditions in the tenement houses were directly responsible
for the tremendous extent and spread of this contagious
disease, and that the first and most important step to be
taken to check it was the improvement of the tenement

house, especially with regard to light and air. oe
16

THE AIR SHAFT.

Bearing these facts in mind it becomes evident that the
present type of “‘air shaft” must be doneaway with in

ii

T.

 

ypical “ Air Shaft”
28 inches wide.

all future tenement houses. Prac-
tically all the witnesses who testified
before the Commission united in the
opinion that the ‘‘air shaft” was the
most serious evil of the present tene-
ment house. This testimony came
from people who live in tenement
houses; from settlement and charity
workers living in tenement districts;
from physicians; from tenement
house owners, and from every one
who has had any knowledge or ex-
perience of this subject. One of the
witnesses said that the ‘‘air shaft”
should not be called an air shaft, but
should be called ‘‘a foul air shaft,”
and we find that it has even been
designated as ‘‘a culture tube on a

gigantic scale.” ~The objections to

‘the “air shaft” are that owing to its

narrowness and height it cannot pos-
sibly afford light to the rooms, but
only semi-darkness; that owing to
the same narrowness and height, and
also to the fact that it is generally
enclos ur_sides, “it is impos-
sible for it to furnish fresh air to the
rooms, but instead it simply becomes
a stagnant well of foul air emptied
from each one of the rooms opening
upon it, which sometimes are as
many as sixty. Many persons testi-
fied that the air from these shafts

was so foul and the odors so vile that they had to close
the windows opening into them, and in some cases the
if

windows were permanently nailed up for this reason.
Moreover, the tenants often use the air shaft as a recep-
tacle for garbage and all sorts of refuse and indescribable
filth thrown out of the windows, and this mass of filth is
often allowed to remain, rotting at the bottom of the shaft
for weeks without being cleaned out.

From other points of view than that of light and air the
air shaft stands condemned. It serves as a conveyor of
smells and noise and is one of the greatest elements in
destroying privacy in the tenement house. Through it
one hears the sounds that occur in the rooms of every other
family in the building, and often in these narrow shafts
the windows of one apartment look directly into the win-
dows of another apartment not more than five feet away.
Privacy under such conditions is not only difficult, but
impossible. The attention of the Commission has been
called to the fact that these conditions have Jed in numer-
ous cases to grave immorality.

From the point of view of danger from fire the “air
shaft” is equally objectionable. The fire department for
years has protested against it as one of the most serious
evils with which it has to contend in fighting tenement
house fires. From the investigation of the way in which
fire spreads through tenement houses made by this Com-
mission, embracing all tenement house fires occurring dur-
ing the past two years and a half in this city, we find that | ¥
twenty-six per cent., or over one-fourth of all the fires
spread by means of the “‘ air shaft.” It is not at all surpris-
ing that this should be the case, because such a shaft in
case of fire must necessarily become nothing more than a
tre

The Commission therefore recommends that such
narrow ‘“‘air shafts” be absolutely prohibited in all future
tenement houses, and that proper courts sufficiently large
to secure adequate light and ventilation to all rooms be
required.

Cenreme
18

DIMENSIONS OF COURTS.

The Commission has sought to establish a principle
regulating the size of courts, and in doing so has based its
conclusions largely upon laws already found in existence
in the cities of Buffalo and Philadelphia, where they have
in practice worked admirably. The law in Buffalo dis-
tinguishes between an open court and a closed court, that
is, between one that is open on one side and permits a cir-
culation of air, and one that is closed on all four sides.
Where the court is open, for a building four stories high,
the Buffalo law requires that such a court must be at least
8 feet wide in its narrowest part, and must increase 1
foot in width for every story above four stories in height,
and that an enclosed court must be of larger dimensions.
In Philadelphia the law similarly prohibits any court of a
less width than 8 feet and requires that where such a court
is between wings of the same building, or between different
buildings, its minimum width shall be at least 12 feet.
The recommendations made by this Commission are along
these lines. We deem it essential to provide fora minimum
width of all open spaces, and we further deem it essential
that such width shall be proportionate to the height of the
building. The recommendations of the Commission upon
this subject will not create what the Commission believes
to be ideal conditions, nor are they such as it would recom-
mend if there were no other controlling considerations.
These recommendations are that the size of all open
spaces left for the purposes of providing light and ventila-
tion shall in every case be regulated by the height of the
building. (his system of regulation has for many years
been recognized as the proper one not only in European
and American cities, but in the law of this State as. well,
the law since 1885. having made the height of buildings

~proportionate to the width of the.streets upon which they
- faces” a

The general features of this scheme are as follows:

The Commission has sought to distinguish between outer
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19

courts and inner courts as is done in the Buffalo law, and
has provided that for a building 60 feet in height the
width of an outer court where it is situated on the lot line
shall not be less than 6 feet, and that where such a court
is between wings of the same building or between dif-
ferent buildings on the same lot the width of this
court shall be 12 feet; (there being twice as many
windows deriving light and air from such a court, the
width should be twice as great); and that for buildings
over 60 feet in height these courts shall increase in width
for every additional story, six inches when the court is
on the lot line, and one foot when the court is between
wings of the same building, and of course permitting a
corresponding decrease of width when such buildings are
less than 60 feet in height. Inner courts enclosed on four
sides and therefore having much less opportunity for
direct sunlight, and for circulation of air, have been
treated differently. The Commission has laid down for
such courts when situated on the lot line a minimum
width of 12 feet with a minimum other dimension of 24
feet, and where such inner courts are entirely enclosed by
four walls the least dimension must be 24 feet. A similar
provision for an increase in both dimensions proportionate
to an increase in height of the building and for a decrease
in both dimensions proportionate to a decrease in the
height of the building has been provided.

This system which may at first glance seem a new way
of regulating open spaces was in fact enunciated in the first
Tenement House Law, passed in 1867. One of the great
evils at that time was the rear tenement house built upon
the same lot with a front building and with a very small
space between the buildings. The law provided that such
distance should be 25 feet when the buildings were
over three stories in height, 20 feet if three stories in
height, 15 feet if two stories in height, and 10 feet if
one story, thus providing a minimum width and a pro-
portionate increase and decrease according to the height
of the building.
20

OPEN SPACE AT REAR.

As all the light received by the rear rooms of a tenement
house is that which comes to it from the back yard, it is
of great importance that this space at the rear should be
kept as large as possible. As time has gone on the size of
this space has been gradually diminished. Forty years ago
the back yards were generally 40 feet in depth, and twenty
years ago they were at least 20 feet in depth while to-day
they are only 10 feet deep, leaving practically no yard to
the building. This not only diminishes the amount of
light and air available for the rear rooms, but also pre-
vents there being any place in which children living in the
tenement house may play. The consequence is that they
are driven to the street. Many of the recommendations
made to the Commission have urged the increase of this
space from 10 feet to 15 feet. The logical requirement
would be that as the height of the building should be pro-
portionate to the street upon which it faces it should also
be proportionate to the yard upon which it backs. Prac-
tical and commercial considerations, however, make it
impracticable at this day to require such achange. The
Commission has, therefore, recommended that the back
yard be increased to 12 feet in depth instead of 10 feet
in the case of buildings 60 feet in height, and that this
depth be increased in proportion to an increased height
of the building. In the case of corner lots the back yard
space must be 10 feet deep instead of 5. This is especially
necessary in the case of corner buildings for the reason
that this open space is practically the only means of
ventilating the interior portions of the whole block, and
that otherwise with the tall modern tenements and the
present contracted back yard space the air in the interior
of the block would soon become stagnant and vitiated.
 

A typical ‘‘ back yard.”
21

PROPORTION OF LOT TO BE BUILT UPON.

The question of what proportion of a lot may be per-
mitted to be occupied by a new tenement house is one that
has had the most serious consideration of the Commission.
The first law upon this subject—that of 1879—limited this
amount to 65 per cent. of the area of the lot but gave to the
Board of Health power to modify this provision in special
cases. This practically remained the law until 1891, when
this discretionary power was taken away from the Board of
Health and the area of a lot permitted to be occupied was
limited to 65 percent. In 1892 this law was re-enacted, but
in the same year at a later date an amendment to the gen-
eral law was passed permitting the Board of Health to
make other regulations ‘‘ within present provisions “6f
law” as to thé proportion of any Iot to be covered by a
“tenement house when it was satisfied that such regulation
would secure equally well the health of the occupants and
the public health. Jn 1895 this part of the law was
amended so as to read as follows:

‘““No one continuous building hereafter constructed
shall be built or converted to the purposes of a tenement
or lodging house in the city of New York, upon an
ordinary city lot, and no existing tenement or lodging
house shall be enlarged or altered, or its lot be diminished
so that it shall occupy more than 65 per centum of the
area of said lot, but where the light and ventilation of
such tenement or lodging house are, in the opinion of the
superintendent of buildings, materially improved, he may
permit such tenement or lodging house to occupy an area
not exceeding 75 per centum of the said lot, and in the
same proportion if the lot be greater or less in size than
25x100 feet; but this provision shall not apply to corner
lots, in which, however, no such building hereafter con-
structed, above the first story shall occupy more than 92
per centum of the areaof a lot. In computing the amount
of the lot covered by a building, any shaft or court of less
than 25 square feet in area shall be considered as part of
the building and not as part of the free air space.”
22

In the opinion of many this discretionary power to permit
occupation of 75 per cent. of the lot was limited by the law
to old buildings which were altered. The law, however,
has been interpreted to give this discretion for new build-
ings as wellas for old buildings, and the discretion has been
exercised in fact in almost every case. Of the new tene-
ment houses examined by the Commission in course of
construction in the Borough of Manhattan it was found
that 99 percent occupied more than 65 per cent. of the area
of the lot. Many members of the Commission have thought
that the percentage of the lot permitted to be occupied
should not exceed 65 per cent., but the Commission, as a

= whole, believes that in view of the existing practice it is
S<.0 not advisable to restrict the area to be occupied beyond 70
“_. percent. of the lot, especially in view of the other provisions
“5 made in the proposed tenement house law regarding the
és" = minimum size of courts and open spaces which will un-
“€S*  ““:doubtedly secure proper sanitary conditions. The Com-
—_ mission, therefore, renews the recommendation of the

Tenement House Commission of 1894 to this effect.

(A
é

o-
me

LS

WINDOWS TO OPEN ON THE OUTER AIR. .

While the present law requires that every room in a
new tenement house must have a window opening to the
outer air, there has been considerable divergence of
opinion in the minds of the officials enforcing this law as
to what constitutes the outer air. We find that in
Manhattan an air shaft 28 inches wide, 60 feet long, 85
feet high and enclosed on four sides is deemed the outer
air, but that an air shaft less than 25 square feet in
area and covered over at the top with a skylight is not
deemed the outer air. The Commissioner of Buildings for
the Borough of Brooklyn, on the other hand, testified that
he deemed a shaft 10 square feet in area covered over at
the top with a skylight to be the outer air, and that he
also considered that a room which had no window ex-
cept a window leading into the public hall of the building
23

complied with the law, because the hall into which this
window opened was provided in the roof, three stories
above, with a ventilating skylight. In view of these facts,

the Commission has provided that every room ina tene- |
ment house, except a water-closet or bath-room, mustopen
either upon the street or upon a yard or upon an inner or |

an outer court of a size as prescribed in the act. An ex-
ception, however, as has been stated, has been made in
regard to water-closets and bath-rooms, in the belief that
these parts of the building might properly secure their
ventilation and light in a different manner.

DARK HALLWAYS.

The evils of the dark, unventilated hallways, have been
recognized ever since the first effort was made to remedy
tenement house conditions, and the first law in regard to
tenement houses sought to remedy these evils by providing
that the halls on each floor should open directly to the ex-
ternal air with suitable windows, and should have no room
or other obstruction at the end. A proviso was added,
however, giving discretionary power to the Board of Health

to permit other means of lighting and ventilating these °

halls. This provision of the law has been re-enacted in
every amendment of the law since 1867. It has practically
never been enforced. The effect of the dark, unventilated
hallway upon health is serious. Any one who has had
much experience in tenement houses knows that the major-
ity of the hallways are pitch black; that a person enters from
the street, gropes his way along the wall and stumbles up
the stairs as best he can; that being unventilated the halls
retain the odors that have come from the different
apartments, odors of cooking as well as the accumulated
odors of every kind. Moreover, being dark, the tenants
do not care whether the halls are clean or not, as no one
can see the dirt, and they at a very early date become very
filthy. More serious, even, than the evils due to dirt and
the lack of ventilation are the moral evils of these places.
24

The following part of a letter from the Vi of St.
Augustine’s—Chapel, which has been signed by twelve
other clergymen who at different times have worked at
this chapel, expresses better than can be done in any
other way the dangers of the dark hallway:

‘‘For nearly thirty years I have been Vicar of this
church, which is situated in almost the centre of the Kast
Side Tenement District of New York City.

“From confidential communications that have been
made to me by the young women themselves, I know that
numbers of respectable girls have been seduced at the very
thresholds of their homes. A party, or the theatre, or a
ball, and a late supper with wine, leading to improper
liberties in the lonely streets on the way home, then the
dark and at that time lifeless halls and stairways of the
tenement, and the sin is done, the apartment door alone
hiding the erring daughter from the sleeping mother.
Whatever the girl’s wishes may be, she can do nothing—
shame prevents her from crying out then and there, and
arousing the whole house.

““The fact is, dark halls and staircases are destructive
to morality, since they give constant opportunities and
furnish most plausible excuses for personal familiarities of
the worst. kind between the sexes.”

The reports of previous Commissions point conclusively
to the same facts, yet notwithstanding this, practically
nothing has been done to remedy these evils. The Tene-
ment House Commission of 1894, thoroughly aware of
this evil, sought to remedy it, and provided in the law
which was enacted as a result of their recommendations
that in every hallway that was not light the owner should
keep a light burning upon each floor from sunrise to ten
o’clock at night. This law, however, has become a dead
letter, and the Board of Health makes practically no at-
tempt to enforce this provision. This Commission has
sought, therefore, to devise some way by which such halls
can be kept lighted. It is obvious that a law requiring
the light to be kept burning is very difficult of enforce-
ment, because when the inspector’s back is turned the
25

light will be turned out. The Commission has sought,
therefore, to substitute for this provision of the law a pro-
vision which when once enforced will stay enforced.
It recommends, therefore, that wherever a tenement
house hallway is now dark the wooden panels in the doors
shall be removed and glass panels substituted, or if this
be not done that a proper window be placed at the end of
the hall leading to the outer air. Hither one of these
things will greatly remedy the existing conditions.

These requirements will apply to the tenement houses
that are already constructed. In regard to the new build-
ings to be erected in the future, the Commission has pro-
vided that every public hallway shall have a window
opening to the outer air so that such hallways shall be
light, and the evils that have existed in former tenement
houses may not be repeated in the new.

The Commission has also recommended that a light
shall be kept burning in the public hallways of all tene-
ment houses upon the entrance floor, and also upon the
second floor above, every night from sunset to sunrise
throughout the year, and that upon all other floors such
a light shall be kept burning from sunset until ten o’clock
at night. This requirement has been urged upon the Com:
mission with practical unanimity not only from the point
of view of morality, but also for the purpose of prevent-
ing fires. The Fire Department has been especially stren-
uous that such a law should be enacted.

FIRE PROTECTION.

The Commission has given most serious attention to
the subject of danger from fires in tenement houses.
There has been avery strong feeling on the part of a cer-
tain element in the community demanding that all future
tenement houses shall be constructed fireproof through-
out. The Commission, however, after very carefully
weighing this subject and after having estimates made as
to the additional cost of such fireproof construction, finds
26

that to make it compulsory at the present time will place
too heavy a burden upon the owners of tenement houses
and also upon tenement house dwellers. That if such a
method of construction were made compulsory, rents in
tenement houses—already high—would be raised to such
a point that tenement house dwellers would seriously
suffer. The Commission has therefore sought to secure
every safeguard possible in respect to fire without going to
the extreme measure of making fireproof tenements com-
pulsory. It has limited the height of future non-fireproof
tenement houses to five stories, except in the case of a
building having a width of forty feet or more; in such
cases permitting the buildings to be erected to a height
of six stories or 67 feet. The laws of this State in 1896
limited the height of all non-fireproof buildings to 70
feet, which does not vary much from this requirement.
The Commission has come to these conclusions in regard
to the height of non-fireproof tenement houses only after
the most serious consideration and discussion of all the
questionsinvolved. It is the one point about which there
has been an earnest difference of opinion between the
members of the Commission, a considerable part of the
Commission wishing to go farther in restricting the height
of non-fireproof tenement houses to five stories under all
circumstances, and permitting no non-fireproof tenement
house to exceed this height. The majority of the Com-
mission, however, having in mind the practical and com-
mercial considerations involved, did not see their way
clear to making such recommendations at the present
time. They find that while the greater part of the tene-
ment houses in this city are five stories high, and that
only 3 per cent. of all these buildings are six stories high,
yet the tenement houses being erected at the present time
are permitted_under certain. conditions to be even as high
as seven stories and basement without the building being
made fireproof, and also that about one-half. the new tene-
ment houses erected during the past year have been over

five stories in height; =——S es
IO ah ae

srermeracean ret
27

FIRST FLOOR OVER CELLAR TO BE FIRE-
PROOF.

The Commission has recommended that the present law
be continued in force which requires that in all new teno-
ment houses five stories or over in height the first floor
over the cellar shall be entirely fireproof. The investiga-
tions of the Commission show that26 per cent. of all the
tenement house fires originate in the cellaty and that a
great majority of these cellar fires occur at night, many
of them starting in the wood-bins, where there is stored a
quantity of inflammable material. It is apparent, there-
fore, that the cellar where such fires generally originate

~., should be shut off from the other parts of the building by
fireproof materials) This the Commission has sought
to accomplish by requiring the first floor to be fireproof,
and also by the requirement that in non-fireproof buildings
there shall be no opening between the-cellarand the ether
__ parts of the building. This has been urged by the Fire
Department fora number of years, and was recommended
_-~ by the Commission of 1894. It is practically the present
. law upon this subject, although in special cases exceptions
' have been permitted. /The Commission would have been
glad to recommend that all wood-bins in the cellars of non-
*. ™ fireproof tenement houses should be constructed of fire-
“CR proof materials. As a matter of fact this was the law in
) _ 1867, but it was repealed some few years inten The Com-
\ mission, however, finds that this form of ~eénstruction
would add materially to the cost of a new tenement house.
It, therefore, limits such a requirement to those cases in
which the first floor in a new tenement house is not con-

_ structed firéproof.

The Commission has also required that in new tenement
houses which are not fireproof throughout the entire
stairs and those parts of the public halls through which ©
persons must pass in escaping from the building, shall ‘bet
constructed absolutely fireproof} and shall be shut off from
the other portions of the building by fireproof material.
28

Investigations made by the Commission of two different
tenement house fires show that in one where such a form
of construction was not adopted the building was almost
entirely destroyed and thirteen persons were burned to
death; that in the other case where a form of construc-
tion of this kind had been used, the fire was practically
confined to the public hall and stairs and quickly burned
itself out.

The recommendations made by the Commission in re-
gard to this subject are practically the re-enactment of the
existing laws.

The Commission finds that in the Building Code, a local
ordinance, there is a requirement that where there is a
store on the first.floor.of.a tenement, house, and the build-
ing is also five stories in height, the second tier of beams
or the beams over.the-store-shall_also_bs ‘be ye. constructed of
‘fireproof_ma materials. As the Commission finds that only
ten per cent. of all the tenement house fires originate in
stores, and as the present Jaw does not require the parti-
tions enclosing the stores to be fireproof, this requirement
seems to afford but little additional protection and not to
be of sufficient importance to warrant making it compul-
sory.

Wooden tenement houses are of course prohibited inside
the fire limits of the City of New York, and the Commis-
sion has therefore considered whether it is desirable to
permit such buildings to be erected outside the fire limits.
In view of the conditions existing in certain Boroughs
which are still partly country and partly city, it has been
felt that it would be a hardship to prohibit the erection of
such buildings outside the fire limits, and the Commission
has therefore permitted buildings of this kind to be erected
in these outlying Boroughs, provided that no such build-
ing is arranged to be occupied by more than four families.

 
   
29

FIRE ESCAPES.

A tenement house fire is a serious thing. Forty-one
deaths were caused by such fires during the past year. It
must also be borne in mind that the actual number of lives
lost is not a fair test of the importance of this subject.
There are many injuries short of death almost as serious,
besides those which are caused by panic, and exposure.
The Commission finds that from the very earliest times,
tenement houses have been required to have proper fire-
escapes, and that generally the kind and location of these
fire escapes have been left to the discretion of the
Commissioner of Buildings. Investigations made by the
Commission show that there are thousands of tene-
ment houses without proper fire escapes, and that
many fire escapes are improperly constructed and are
totally inadequate for the purpose intended. It has sought,
therefore, to embody in its proposed code detailed provi-
sions as to how fire escapes shall be constructed and where
they shall be located on tenement houses which are not
fireproof. While it might at first sight seem that the
Commission has gone into very great detail in these pro-
visions, upon examination it will be found that the pro-
visions are to a very large extent copies of the present
regulations of the Department of Buildings and that
where they depart from these regulations they have been
modeled upon the requirements of the law in Philadel-
phia regarding fire escapes. The Commission believes that
it is unwise to leave so y important. a matter tot the discrétion
~ of any public of ‘official, no_ matter.how honest and efficient
he may be, and that the laws upon such a subject should
‘be explicit and mandatory.

CELLAR ROOMS.

One of the earliest evils of our tenement houses was the
occupancy of cellar rooms, and the first tenement house
30

law sought particularly to remedy this evil, The law which
was passed then upon this subject has been re-enacted
every time the tenement house law has been amended
with slight changes each time—the requirements being
made somewhat more severe so as to safeguard the public
health. There has been on the part of many persons a
demand that the Commission should recommend a law
absolutely forbidding the occupancy of any room partly un-
der ground. This the Commission cannot see its way clear
to do, because it is of opinion that many such rooms can
easily be made habitable, and that a great injustice would
be done if their occupancy were forbidden. The Commis-

- sion, however, believes that in new tenement houses the

law in this regard should provide that no room more than
one-half of which is below the level of the curb should be
occupied for living purposes.

SEPARATE WATER-CLOSET ACCOMMODA-
TIONS.

In regard to the subject of water-closet accommodations,
the Commission recommends that in every tenement house
erected in future a separate water-closet shall be provided
for each family within the apartments. This, the Com-
mission believes, is required by common decency and
morals, and no one who has made ary recommendation to
them has not agreed with this view. As a matter of fact,
the Commission finds that it is becoming the practice for
builders to provide separate water-closet accommodations
in new tenement houses from motives of self-interest, al-
though the present law only requires one water-closet for
every two families. An 61 per cent. of the new tenement
houses examined it was found that a private water-Closet
was provided for each ra
31

GENERAL SANITARY PROVISIONS.

In regard to the subject of plumbing, the Commission
finds that on the whole the present plumbing law as em-
bodied in the Building Code is adequate if properly en-
forced. It would add, however, one or two additional
recommendations: That the water-closet compartments
shall be provided with proper means of lighting the same
at night, and that all plumbing pipes, wherever possible,
be exposed, or that, if such pipes are covered, they shall
be arranged in such a way that access can be had to them
without cutting open the floors or partitions; also that
where they pass through floors or through the partitions
the space shall be made air tight with some non-combust-
ible material, so as to prevent the spread of fire from floor
to floor, and also to prevent the passage of air from one
room to another. This will also be beneficial in checking
the spread of contagious disease.

The Commission also recommends that in existing tene-
ment houses the following requirements of the present
law be continued in force: That such houses be provided y
with a proper and adequate water supply; that they shall -
be kept at all times in a clean condition; that proper re-
ceptacles shall be provided at all times for ashes, garbage,
refuse, etc.; that there shall be a janitor or housekeeper
for every tenement house where there are eight families or
more, etc. fg

--—fhe Commission also recommends that at the bottom of
every shaft or court there shall be a_door.so as to permit
these shafts_to be cleaned out, it having developed that

such shafts are often covered at the bottom with rubbish
which it is almost impossible to remove, owing to the fact
that there is no means of access to the shaft.

The Commission has carefully considered the provisions
of the present law in regard to the use of wall paper in
tenement houses and has recommended that no change be
made in that portion of the law which requires that
where any wall paper is placed upon a wall or ceiling
32

the existing wall paper shall be removed and the wall or
ceiling shall be thoroughly cleansed. The other provision,
however, of the present law upon this subject, that the
walls and ceilings of every tenement house shall be white-
washed once a year, the Commission has not found itself
able to recommend. While it appreciates the sanitary
advantages of such a requirement in some cases, it is man-
_ifestly unfair_to apply.this law to the better grade of
apartment, houses and flats. “Such an application of it

Serer te

 

would be deemed by the tenants an unwarrantable inter-
ference with their natural rights and liberties. The
Commission has, therefore, recommended that this por-
tion of the law be repealed. It has, however, required
that the walls and ceilings of the cellars shall be white-
washed once a year; this the Commission considers essen-
sae also recommended further that the walls of all
air Shafts shall either be whitewashed at least once in
three years or shall be painted a light color at least once
every five years.

The above statement summarizes the more important
recommendations of the Commission in regard to tene-

ment houses to be erected in the future. 3

NON-ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS IN EX-
ISTING TENEMENT HOUSES.

In regard to the existing tenement houses, the Commis-
sion is of opinion that the most serious evils are due to the
lack of proper, adequate sanitary supervision. When it
is borne in mind that there are in greater New York
82,652 tenement houses, containing a population of 2,372, -
079 persons, and that the entire corps of sanitary in-
spectors of the Department of Health devoting their time
to this work is sixty-one inspectors for the entire city,
including the Bronx, Brooklyn and the other boroughs,
as well as Manhattan, it is not to be wondered at that
*Alessadau st uonsadsuy Aiepwueg AU

 

 
33

grave evils exist, or that the sanitary condition of the
tenements is one which calls for the most effective reme-
dies. It is obviously a physical impossibility for so small a
corps of men to make the slightest pretense of adequately
inspecting such buildings. The law calls for a semi-an-
nual inspection of all tenement houses. This has developed
practically into a tenement house census twice a year and
the entire time of the Sanitary Squad of policemen detailed
by the Police Department to secure the enforcement of the
tenement house laws is taken up with this work. The
officials of the Department of Health stated in their testi-
mony before the Commission that with the exception of
the census referred to, it had become the practice in the
Health Department to inspect tenement houses only upon
complaint, and that the entire time of the inspectors was
taken up in investigating such complaints and seeing that
they were remedied, and that it was absolutely impossible
for the Department to make a thoroughAnspection of the
tenement houses on its own initiative. \ Until there is an
adequate corps of sanitary inspectors to inspect the lower ™
grade of tenement houses thoroughly at least once a month,
there is little hope that the evils of the existing tenement
houses will be remedied) The value of such an inspection
cannot be overestimated. The report of the inspector
employed by the Commission shows that his mere presence
in buildings, without giving any orders, or without any
legal proceedings being brought was of the most beneficial
effect, and that it had a salutary moral influence in
remedying bad conditions. If this isso in the case of one
man attempting to use no authority, it is not difficult to
conceive what results could be accomplished if a systematic,
thorough and frequent inspection of the tenements were
made.

' The Commission finds, however, that the Department
of Health is charged with many other duties beside the
duty of tenement house inspection. It has, for instance,
the management of four hospitals; the recording of death,
birth and marriage statistics for the entire city; the pre-
vention of the spread of contagious and infectious dis-
34

eases; the disinfecting of all buildings; the inspection of
mercantile establishments, and the granting of permits to
school children to work; milk inspection, meat, fish, fruit
and food inspection; the regulation of offensive trades;
the prohibition of smoke nuisances; the management of
bacteriological laboratories; the production of anti-toxin;
the medical inspection of schools and school children; the
analysis of the water supply; the removal of dead animals
from the streets; the inspection of the elevated railroad,
etc., etc. It is apparent that with all these other duties
to perform the work of the supervision and sanitary
maintenance of 82,000 tenement houses is apt to be some-
what neglected.

The report of every previous Tenement House Commis-
sion has called attention to the fact that the Department
of Health has not had a sufficient number of inspectors to
properly perform its duties, and as a consequence, the
number of such inspectors has been from time to time
slightly increased. This, however, has failed to meet the
situation.

It is to be noted also that’ there is no special bureau of
the Health Department for the supervision of the tene-
ment houses} nor is there any official or employee of thig
department devoting his entire time to such work, but
that the inspectors are given districts throughout the city
and are required to inspect all buildings within these dis-
tricts. The fact that the department no longer makes
inspections on its own initiative, but does most of its
work on complaint of citizens shows that a radical change
is imperative. It should not be necessary for any con-
siderable number of such complaints to be filed. There
should be systematic, regular, thorough and adequate in-
spection of all the tenement houses in this city at all
times, If such inspection were carried on, the greater
part of the tenement house evils would be remedied with-
out the necessity for the filing of complaints, or for taking
legal proceedings, or for the issuance of the numerous
“orders” that are now issued by the Department of
Health. To any one of experience in sanitary affairs, it is
35

obvious that if such inspection is properly carried out the
sanitary evils will very greatly diminish. It has been the
history of Glasgow and all other well administered muni-
cipalities. In Glasgow there are 150 sanitary inspectors
and in London about 230. While the Commission ap-
preciates that so large a force means additional outlay by
the city, it believes that any sum of money likely to be
spent for this work would be a paying investment both to
the city and the State.

NON-ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW IN NEW

 
  

TENEMENTS.
Out of 333 new tenement houses in course of construc-

tion which were inspected in the Borough of Manhattan,
only fifteen were found in which there were no violations
of law.) In the other boroughs there was no such house
found in which there was no violation.

There is probably no provision of the law more import-
ant than that which limits the proportion of lot area to
be occupied by a building.

Of the 286 tenements where this information was obtain-
able, 282, or 99 per cent., covered more than 65 per cent. of
the lot; 274, or 96 per cent., more than 70 per cent. of the
lot, and 88, or 31 per cent., more than 75 per cent. of the
lot, the extreme limit of discretion given to the Building
Department. Twenty-nine tenements occupied 80 per
cent. of lot area or over. These percentages in other
boroughs were somewhat less. In Manhattan, out of the
houses examined in these particulars, 67 per cent. had the
floors of their public halls, 97 per cent. their stairs, and
58 per cent. the walls enclosing their stairs constructed of
wood.

The law requires all these parts of the building to be of
“slow burning or fireproof construction.”

In Brooklyn the percentages were 66 per cent., 100 per
cent. and 70 per cent. respectively.

  
 
36

DIVIDED RESPONSIBILITY—ONE CAUSE OF
THE NON-ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW.

A study of the movement for tenement house reform in
this city during the past sixty years points to the con-
clusion that a large part of the failure to accomplish this
reform has been due to the lack of some one special body
charged with the care and oversight of the tenement
houses. At present the enforcement of the different laws
in relation to these buildings is divided among four differ-
ent city departments: the Health Department, the Build-
ing Department, the Fire Department and the Police
Department, each one of which is charged with many
other duties. Allusion has already been made to the other
duties of the Health Department. The Department of
Buildings, in addition to inspecting tenement houses, has
the work of examining, approving and recording all plans
for all new buildings and the inspection of private dwell-
ings, hotels, lodging houses, office buildings, stores, lofts,
warehouses, factories, stables, schools, churches, hospitals,
theatres, etc., etc. Also the inspection of plumbing work
in all buildings; the inspection of all passenger elevators,
in the city; the inspection of unsafe buildings; the making
of soil tests; the making of tests of new structural and
fireproof material, etc., etc. The Building Department.
officials testified before the Commission that there was no
special bureau in their department charged with the duty
of enforcing the tenement house laws, and that no dis-
tinction was made between tenement houses and other
buildings in regard to the amount of attention given to
such work.

The main duty of the Fire Department is the extinguish-
ment of fires; in addition to this duty, however, it is
charged with certain other duties with reference to the
storage of combustible materials; and in regard to tene-
ment houses is charged with a divided responsibility for
the prevention of the encumbrance of fire escapes. It also
has certain duties with reference to bakeries, liquor stores,
37

paint shops and drug stores in existing tenement houses.
It has no force available for such work and can give it but
slight attention. It ig obvious also that men who have
been trained to fight fires cannot be economically used for
work of ordinary inspection.

The Police Department, in addition to its police duties,
shares with the Health Department the responsibility for
the sanitary inspection of tenement houses and is required
to report all violations of the tenement house laws and
ordinances, and also of the sanitary code. It also shares
with the Fire Department the responsibility for the
enforcement of the law in regard to the encumbrance of
fire escapes on tenement houses.

It is apparent that the enforcement of the tenement
house laws being only a small part of the work of these
four different departments must receive a comparatively
small amount of attention. This system possesses other
disadvantages equally great. Responsibility being divided,
it is difficult to hold any particular person or department
accountable for the enforcement of thelaw. This became
very apparent to the Commission at the public hearings,
where testimony was given by the different city officials.
The responsibility for very serious violations of the law was
shifted from one official to another to such an extent as
to elicit the statement from the Assistant Corporation
Counsel, that ‘The shifting of official responsibility has
become quite a science.” When we consider that the
physical, moral and industrial welfare of a large part of
the community is directly affected by this shifting of
official responsibility the consequences become most
serious.
38

A SEPARATE TENEMENT HOUSE DEPART-
MENT NECESSARY.

For the reasons above advanced the Commission is of
opinion that the best solution of the present and future
tenement house problem will come through the creation
of a separate department charged with no duty except
the supervision of the tenement houses—a department of
such size as to adequately fulfill such functions. This
suggestion is entirely in accord with the principle of the
division of labor. It is also in line with the historical de-
velopment of municipal organization.

In the past the Building Department was a bureau of
the Fire Department. As the city increased in size and
the building laws became more complex and the work of
inspection multiplied it was found necessary to create a
separate department to administer the building laws.
This Commission believes that the time has now come
when the creation of a separate Tenement House Depart-
ment is imperative. It has, therefore, presented with this
report a bill for the creation of such a department.

In making this recommendation the Tenement House»
Commission caloated repeating the recommendation that
_ appointed. to. investigate” this” ‘subject. “This Committee
was composed of five members of the Assembly, who
made a most interesting and valuable report upon tene-
ment house conditions in New York at that time. We
have alluded elsewhere to the value of this report. Had
their recommendations for a Tenement House Depart-
ment, or,. as they called_it, for a ‘Board of Home Com- ©
missioners,” been adopted, the ‘evils that now threaten to
overwhelm the community would not exist. No one who
has studied the tenement house problem can help being
impressed by the fact that the conditions described in the
reports of each of the different bodies who have investi-
gated this subject at different periods are in nearly every
case the same. The Commission believes that the contin-
39

uous attention, year in and year out, of some one body
directly charged with the enforcement of tenement house
laws is essential for their administration and that it can
with especial propriety urge upon the Legislature the
adoption of recommendations made to that body forty
years ago by a committee of its own members.

The necessity for the creation of such a Tenement House
Department implies also the necessity for a careful scheme
of its organization. The Commission has therefore recom-
mended in one of the bills which accompany this report
that this department shall be organized along certain defi-
nite lines; that at its head shall be a single Commissioner,
who shall have complete control of his department, and
who shall be the sole individual whom the people of New
York can hold responsible for any violation of the laws in
relation to tenement houses. If, then, the laws are not
enforced, there will be no opportunity for the shifting of
responsibility, and the people will know with whom they
have to deal, and will be able to apply the proper remedy.
In such a eee should be bureaus, charged
with specific functions~~Prior to 1892, the duty of enforc-
ing the tenement house laws was vested almost entirely in
ee ee ee that portion of the tene-
ment house law relating to light-and ventilation. In 1892,
however, these functions were transferred to the newly
created Department of Buildings} The officers of the De-
partment of Health have always considered this a serious
mistake. If the inspections made by the Tenement House
Commission of new tenement houses constructed during
the past year are any criterion, that opinion would seem
to be confirmed.

Leaving aside, however, all other questions of adminis-
tration, it is apparent that the duty of enforcing the laws
in relation to the light and ventilation of new tenement
houses should be placed in a department whose daily duties
take its officers and employees into existing tenement
houses and who are thereby familiar with existing evils
and qualified to pass intelligently on these important par-
ticulars in the planning of new tenement houses. At pres-
40

ent, the officials of the Building Department practically
never go into a completed tenement house. Their duties
cease after the construction of the building is finished.
They therefore are not likely to be familiar with tenement
house evils. They will not have the knowledge or ex-
perience necessary to fit them to pass upon the sanitary
questions that arise in considering the light and ventila-
tion of a new tenement house. The testimony of the
Building Commissioners that the present laws were ade-
quate and that the present type of air-shaft was entirely
sufficient in size, notwithstanding the testimony of every
other witness who appeared before the Commission that
the air-shaft was a most serious evil and of no benefit, in-
dicates this conclusively. One of the important Bureaus
in a Tenement House Department, therefore, will be a
new Building Bureau, which will be charged with the
duty of examining the plans for all new tenement houses
and seeing that they conform to the laws in regard to
light and ventilation. In the bill submitted by the Com-
mission it is provided that the owner of every tenement
house, after submitting his plans to the Tenement House
Commissioner, shall receive from the Commissioner a cer-
tificate that the plans conform to the tenement house laws,
in regard to light and ventilation of the building, if upon
examination they are found to do so; and it is further
provided that until such a certificate has been filed in the
Department of Buildings, the Commissioner of Buildings
shall not grant a permit for the construction of the tene-
ment house.

The Commission has sought to develop this idea of
granting certificates to a still greater degree and has pro-
vided that before a new tenement house may be occupied,
the Tenement House Commissioner shall cause an ex-
amination of the building to be made, to determine
whether it complies with the tenement house laws; and
that if the building does not so comply it shall not be used
or occupied as a tenement house until it is made to con-
form to the requirements of the statute. If, on the other
hand, it is found to comply with the laws, then a written
41

certificate shall be issued to the owner of the building to
that effect. There are many reasons why such a recom-
mendation has been made by the Commission. In the
first place, the Commission finds that the present sys-
tem of administering the building laws fails to check
violations of the law, the report of the Commissioner of
Buildings showing that some 24,000 violations have been
filed in one year. This is not preventing violations. It
was brought out in the testimony taken by the Commis-
sion, and which is submitted with this report, that it was
customary in the Department of Buildings to send a series
of notices to the owner or architect of the building, in-
forming him that violations of the law had been com-
mitted and threatening legal proceedings, and it appears
that in the great majority of cases this series of notices
and letters was apt to drag on anywhere from two to six
months before an actual proceeding was begun in court.
By that time the tenement house had been completed and
usually sold to some innocent purchaser with all the viola-
tions of law still in the building. As these violations in
most cases cannot be remedied after the building is com-
pleted without radically reconstructing it, and in some
cases without tearing it down, it is of course apparent that
the violations in many cases are not remedied. A more
serious consequence, however, is that the building laws are
not feared by the builder. He naturally feels that he can
violate them with impunity because he is not punished,
as he knows that he can complete his building and sell it
before any legal proceedings are commenced. As such
proceedings are always taken against the owner of the
property, it is of no importance to the builder whether the
new owner is sued or not after he, the builder, has dis-
posed of the property.

The law prescribes specific penalties of fifty dollars for
each violation of the building law, and a further penalty
of two hundred and fifty dollars for every such violation
which is not removed within ten days. The Assistant
Corporation Counsel testified before the Commission that
although about 11,000 violations of the building law had
42

been filed inthe Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx,
these penalties were collected in only four cases.

The requirement therefore that no tenement house
should be occupied for living purposes until a certificate
for its completion in compliance with the law be issued,
will not only enforce obedience to law in the simplest
manner but will do away with the present cumbersome
system of threatening prosecution and the dragging on of
long legal proceedings in civil actions. Such a provision
will also be of great value to investors in tenement house
property, and will be a great protection to guarantee and
trust companies and to insurance companies and other
fiduciary institutions investing their capital in buildings
of this class.

The Commission is convinced that if this plan is adopted,
in a very short time it will become customary for no finan-
cial institution to make a loan upon such property unless
the builder can exhibit a certificate that the building
complies with the tenement house laws. It is also the
right of a builder, who has sought to comply with the law
and who has done so, to know once for all whether his
building complies with the law; otherwise, he may be per-
secuted by having petty violations served upon him after
the building is finished. In many cases such things occur
and are a source of great injustice to the honest builder.
We find that such a system of granting certificates is now
carried on by the great majority of architects, it being the
custom for the owner not to make payments to the builder
except upon a certificate from the architect that the work
has been done properly. We find also that the building
laws in Philadelphia and in Chicago prescribe an exactly
similar method of procedure in regard to the construction
of fire escapes, and that the laws in Glasgow and Edin-
burgh require that no new dwelling-house shall be occu-
pied until a certificate has been issued by the proper
authority that it conforms to thelaw. This recommen-
dation has been urged upon the Commission by the assist-
ant Corporation Counsel, who also suggested the additional
requirement that the Commissioner of Water Supply
43

should not permit water to be turned on in a new tene-
ment house until such a certificate had been issued.

It may seem, at first thought, that the jurisdiction of
such a Tenement House Department in relation to new
buildings might overlap or interfere with the jurisdiction
of the Building Department in respect to such houses.
This, however, is not. the case, as the laws in relation to
light and ventilation apply only to tenement and lodging
houses and not to other kinds of buildings. The exami-
nation of the structural parts of the building will still be
under the Department of Buildings, and it will be only
those special requirements which apply to tenement houses
and not to other buildings that will be enforced. by the
Tenement House Department.

The work of the new Tenement House Department will,
however, relate mainly to the sanitary supervision of
existing tenements. This, of course, will necessitate the
creation in such a department of a Sanitary Inspection
Buregu. To be effective, this bureau should be of a size
sufficient to inspect every tenement house in the city at
least once a month. The Commission has made an esti-
mate of the number of blocks in the distinctively tenement
districts of the city, and finds that on the Island of Man-
hattan there are about 1,200 such blocks. It also finds
that an ordinary inspector could make a complete and
thorough inspection of every tenement house from cellar
to roof at least once a month, provided he had a district
assigned to him of about twelve blocks, and that un-
doubtedly after such work of inspection had been carried
on for a while it would be possible to give to the in-
spector a larger district. This would mean, therefore,
that it would be necessary to have a force of about one
hundred inspectors for the Island of Manhattan, and for
the whole city of Greater New York the Commission has
estimated that a force of about 190 inspectors would be
necessary to adequately perform this work.

This does not mean 190 additional City employees.
That there shonld be more inspectors in such a new De-
partment to adequately fulfill its duties than are now en-

  
   
    
44

gaged in tenement house inspection in the Building and
Health Departments, is apparent, but except to this ex-
tent the inspectors in the new Tenement House Depart-
ment would only take the place of those now employed
in other City departments for tenement house supervision
and whose services in these other departments would no
longer be necessary. :
In the organization of such a department or bureau, it
would be desirable to have some system of checking the
work of the inspectors by means of special inspectors, who
act somewhat in the nature of roundsmen in the police de-
partment. Such asystem is now in vogue in the Building
Department and is found to work admirably. It would also
be desirable to have a number of inspectors to make night
inspections, so as to prevent overcrowding in tenement
houses, this being the only way that this evil can be
dealt with. The number of inspectors provided for in the
recommendations of the Commission includes all of these.
Some of these inspectors might be women. The duty of
the Sanitary Inspection Bureau would be to inspect all the
lower grade of tenement houses in the city at least once a
month. Such an examination should concern itself, not
simply with the first floor of the building, as is often the,
case now, but should include the cellars, roofs, halls,
yards, water-closets, plumbing, and all other parts of the
building. With a corps of inspectors of this kind under
proper administration, we believe that a complete trans-
formation would be effected in New York’s tenement
houses, that the present dark halls would be kept lighted,
that buildings would be adequately supplied with water
and kept clean, and that there would be very soon almost
no sanitary abuses. The problem is purely one of ade-
quate inspection. Besides the sanitary inspection of tene-
ment houses, to see that they are maintained in proper
condition, the duty would also devolve upon this bureau
of seeing that certain dangerous trades in tenement houses
are kept within proper restrictions; by this we refer to
bakeries, paint shops and similar stores in buildings of this
kind. This duty at present devolves upon the Fire Depart-
45

ment, and this Department would therefore be relieved
from this duty. It would also devolve upon the Sanitary
Inspection Bureau to make a thorough sanitary examina-
tion of the tenement houses in the city, for the purpose of
ascertaining what buildings are unfit for human habitation,
and it would be the duty of the Tenement House Com-
missioner, either to see that these buildings were vacated
or were put in proper condition. There are many
such buildings in the city at the present time. In
some, slight alterations would make the buildings hab-
itable; in others, more extensive alterations would be
needed and in still others the buildings should either be
permanently vacated or torn downy at present, these
duties devolve upon the Department of oe
about a hundred such buildings were condemned by that
Department, and many of thom were torn down and
others permanently vacated, while:still others were altered
so as to be fit for habitation. ‘The Commission finds,
“however, that this work has practically stopped since
1896, although the Department of Health has full power
to proceed witb |
In addition to-these two bureaus, it is very desirable
that there should be a Bureau_of Records-in_t ene-
ment House Department, which should keep ee
of every tenement house in such manner and form as
would enable the Tenement House Commissioner to know,
at any time, all the facts in reference to any one tene-
ment house. Previous Tenement House Commissions
have been much impressed with the importance of having
such statistics availableand have sought to accomplish this.
As a direct result of the recommendations of one of these
Commissions, a Registrar of Statistics was appointed in
the Department of Health, for the purpose of keeping
these statistics of tenement houses. Most of his time,
however, is taken up with the keeping of the vital statis-
tics of the city, and the registry of births, marriages and
deaths. This, of course, does not meet in any way the
purpose sought to be accomplished. What is needed is
some system of keeping the records of every tenement
Meg

ae ‘

46

house so that all the facts in connection with that house
may be seen at a glance. _It seems to the Commission de-
sirable, therefore, to adopt.some system of keepi ing records,
which would show a diagram of each tenement house,

with. the shape of the. building, its width and depth,
also the measurements of the. unoccupied area,
Showing the shafts, courts. and. yards, This dia-
gram should include a _ plan_of_ the second or
typical floor of the building, giving ‘the size “and
atrangement of the rooms, with all doors, stairs, win-
dows, halls and partitions. Such record should also con-

tain a statement of the date-or-approximate date when

the building was erected; also. the total deaths in each
building during “each year.should_be recorded, as well as

the annual death rate of the building, and in such state-
ment the deaths of adults and children should be differen-
tiated. Where these deaths were caused by a contagious
disease, a statement should be made to this effect and the
nature of the disease indicated. Similarly, all cases of

 

sickness occurring in each tenement house should be re-

corded: In addition to these records, it would seem to the
Commission algo to be of value to have on file the records
of the number of applications for charitable relief from,
each tenement house. Undoubtedly the leading charitable
societies of the city would be willing to furnish such in-
formation. It would also be important to have from the
Police Department a record of the number of arrests
which have been made from each tenement house and
the age of the person arrested.~ If such a system were
adopted, it would soon be known what buildings in the
city were having a bad effect upon the health, morals
and industrial well-being of the community)

The Commission finds that there are a number of
houses in the city which are permanently infected
with tuberculosis, and that families moving into such
houses without knowing these facts had become infected
with this dread disease. Dr. Biggs, of the Department of
Health, has shown in the special report which he has writ-
ten for the Commission and which forms part of its report,
47

that in one part of the city, in one block, there are at
least three tenement houses in which have occurred
twenty-two cases of tuberculosis in each house within the
past five years. While the collection of these statistics
would be justified because of the scientific interest of the
information obtained, it is not for such reason that the
Commission urges the adoption of such a plan. It is
because they believe that it is essential for the Tenement
House Commissioner to have such data, if he is to intelli-
gently administer the tenement house laws, and that if
such data were available there would be no question what
tenement houses should be most guarded by frequent in-
spection and what buildings should be vacated.

In providing for the organization of this department
the Tenement House Commission, in making its recom-
mendations, has followed along the lines of previous leg-
islation upon this subject, and has, in nearly every case,
adopted the present provisions of the Charter in regard to
the organization of the Department of Health, giving to
the Tenement House Department powers similar to those
now enjoyed by the latter. In no case do the powers
given to the Tenement House Department exceed the
powers now vested in the Department of Health, but on
the contrary are not so great. It is to be borne in mind
that in no way are the present powers of the Department
of Health, in regard to the general health of the com-
munity, interfered with in the slightest degree. The Com-
mission believes that it is absolutely essential that the
Department of Health should retain all its present powers.
It has, however, transferred to the Tenement House,
Department certain duties now imposed upon the Depart-
ment of Health. “Such duties,are solely the duties of the.)
inspection of tenement houses.) While a transfer of such
work will probably mean that a number of the present
employees of the Health Department will be available for
other work, the Commission has not thought it necessary
to provide in detail for the working out of the transfer of
these men, but believes that such matters had better be
left for future adjustment.
48

In considering all these matters, it is important to con-
sider not only the present needs of the city, but the future
needs as well. If the development which has taken place
in the Borough of the Bronx in the last five years whereby
a suburban or semi-suburban district has been trans-
formed into an overcrowded tenement district is any
criterion of the future development of the city, no time
can be lost in putting into operation an adequate method
of properly supervising the city’s tenement houses.

DEFINITION OF TENEMENT HOUSE.

rod A tenement house as defined by law is ‘‘ Any house
occupied as the home or residence of three families or

' more, living independently of each other, and doing their
\ cooking upon the premises.” This definition includes
“those houses which are popularly called tenements, as well
as those which are popularly called “flats” or “‘ apart-
ment houses.” Precisely how many of the two and one-
quarter million people who constitute the tenement house
population of New York live in the houses which would
be popularly called tenements cannot be stated with abso-
lute accuracy, because the question involves some deter-
mination of the dividing line between ‘‘ tenements,”
“flats,” and ‘‘apartment houses,” which no one has ever
been able as yet to satisfactorily draw. If the line is to
be drawn between those houses which in their construc-
tion and maintenance require regulation for the protection

- of their inmates and those which will be properly built
and maintained from motives of self-interest without re-
gard to legal regulations, it is certain that more than two
million people—thatis, more than half the entire population
of New York—are dependent upon the existence and en-
forcement of a proper tenement house law for their health,
protection against fire, and social environment. It has
been suggested to the Commission that they should dis-
tinguish between the tenement and the apartment house,
and confine the operation of the tenement house laws to
49

the former. All who have made this suggestion have
been asked what regulations for lighting, ventilation,
fire protection and sanitation should be required by law
for the protection of the dweller in an East Side tene-
ment, which should not equally be required for those
who live in West Side apartments, or even if not required,
would not be complied with from motives of enlightened
self-interest by every intelligent owner of a first-class
apartment house? No such regulation has been pointed out,
nor has any member of the Commission been able to sug-
gest any. Qn the other hand, more than twenty officials
of the Board of Health strongly recommended that no
change in the law be made for the reason that there could
be no distinction which would not result in evasion of
law, and that the only effect of such a distinction would
be to give concessions to the larger apartment houses
which would be objectionable from sanitary reasons. If,
therefore, there is no regulation appropriate to the
‘*cheapest tenement” which is not equally appropriate to
the most expensive ‘‘apartment house,” and which, in-
deed, would not be complied with in the latter case by far-
sighted owners, whether such regulation were or were not
required by law, there is no reason to draw a distinction
which since the first enactment of a tenement house
law in New York has been found unnecessary and im-
practicable, and which if drawn would make one set of
laws for the rich and another for the poor, a class distinc-
tion obnoxious to the democratic policy of our State.

DISCRETIONARY POWER TO CITY DEPART-
MENTS.

In several important parts of the present tenement house
laws, discretion is left to different city officials to modify
their requirements. Theoretically, such a principle has
certain advantages, because it would seem to enable dis-
cretion to be exercised to effect the purpose of the law un-
der varying conditions, for all of which it might be difficult
50

to make precise provision. In practice, however, city offi-
cials have been put in the difficult position of either refus-
ing to exercise discretion plainly conferred upon them by
law, and thereby exposing themselves to the charge of
unjust discrimination, or of exercising that discretion in
practically every instance. They havé usually chosen the
latter alternative, so that in almost every case that has
been done which the extreme degree of discretion would
permit. For example, the law which limits to sixty-five
per cent. the area of lot to be occupied by any tenement
house hereafter to be constructed or altered gives discretion
to the Commissioner of Buildings ‘‘ where the light and
ventilation of such tenement house is materially im-
proved” to permit it to occupy an additional area not ex-
ceeding seventy-five per cent., and this permission has
been given in ninety-nine out of a hundred of all the new
tenement houses inspected by the Commission. Discre-
tionary power under such circumstances results in failure
to accomplish the very purpose of the law, and is almost
always a source of difficulty and nd_embarrassment_to_ city
officials, who, however desirous..of. carrying out the spirit
of the Taw, sometimes_find_ themselves exposed to influ-
“ences ences which they. cannot. easily._r resist. ~"Moréover, such
discretion in the hands of unworthy Gor th will often

 

lead to injustice and discrimination. or these reasons
the Commission has sought to eliminate discretionary
_ power from the proposed code, so far as possible, in the
“interest alike of the general public and of good city gov-
ernment)

FINANCIAL SIDE OF THE TENEMENT HOUSE
PROBLEM.

Probably. no subject has been more carefully reviewed
by the Commission than the practicability of the legis-
lation proposed, and its effect on property interests. In
the many discussions had by the Commission, it is safe to

~_ say ‘that the point of view 0 of the. tenement ‘house owner
51

has | been considered quite as much as the point of view of
-the-tenant, and properly so, for though the interests
of landlord and tenant , Superficially considered, may “seem
‘to be divergent, | in the ultimate analysis they are iden-
_tical.. The Commission presents with this report two
“special papers upon this subject, one dealing with the ques-
tion of rentals and returns upon tenement house prop-
erty, both of the ordinary kind and also of improved
tenements; the other treating the phases of the problem
involved in the ordinary methods of building tenement
houses upon building loans as a speculation.

The report of the first_Tenement House Commission of
4856 and other early reports on this subject are replete
with accusations against the greed of landlords, and the
profits on tenement house property are stated in these
reports at figures which now seem almost fabulous. Un-
doubtedly, at those times the demand for tenement house
accommodation was in excess of the supply, partly in-
cidental to the extraordinary increase of immigration. At
the present time the amount of accommodation is fairly
in advance of the demand, and indeed the‘investigations
of the Commission show that. over9_per.cent,.of the room. "~

accommodation in tenement houses is vacant. So many
varying ‘circumstances affect the rental of the new tene-
ment house that it is very difficult to determine the aver-
age net returns now received from such investments. The
new house, which either needs or has but small expendi-
ture for repairs, and is under efficient management, may
produce a large net income, while the same house built a
few years ago in which many repairs have already become
necessary and which has inefficient management, may
produce but little. The figures in every case would be mis-
leading from the point of view of permanent investment.
Dr. Elgin R. L. Gould in the special report on
this subject, which follows this general report, concludes
that the average net return on the ordinary class of tene-
ments now being erected, without any mortgage placed
upon the property, is 5.81 per cent., and that when a
mortgage is placed upon the property, for about 60 per

 
52

cent. of its entire cost, that the average net profit on such
property is 7.03 per cent.

The Commission finds that substantial profits are real-
ized in speculative operations not only by the building loan
operator, but also by the speculative builder, before the
tenement house has been purchased by the ultimate in-
vestor, and that this system of middlemen tends, as in,
other industries, to increase cost to the consumer, who is
in this case the tenant. The Commission has not thought
it practicable to recommend any specific legislation upon
this subject, but is of the opinion that the plan of granting
certificates to the owners of new tenement houses will
tend to remedy some abuses in construction which now
exist. The Commission would also call attention to the
evils resulting from the inferior grade of workmanship
employed in many tenement houses. In the ordinary
tenement house the Commission finds that the work is
generally of a low grade, and that such property is apt to
deteriorate in a very short time. The result is not only a
loss to the investor, but a loss to the tenement dweller.
It means discomfort, and also means that he must pay
higher rents to meet the increasing bills for repairs which,
each year grow greater.

This report has so far been devoted to the main evils of
tenement houses due to faulty construction and lack of
proper supervision. There are, however, other phases of
the tenement house problem which are of vital moment
to the welfare of the community and which deserve
serious consideration. For some of these we have deemed
it our duty to recommend legislation. In regard to others,
while we appreciate the necessity for a change in the ex-
isting conditions, and mention them in this report, we
have not deemed it within our duties to make specific
recommendations.

There are also many suggestions which have been care-
fully considered by the Commission among which are
several which call for special mention.
53

THE TWENTY-FIVE FOOT LOT.

One suggestion, which has been pressed with great
force, is that the building of a new tenement on a twenty-
five foot lot should be forbidden. There is no question but
that the ordinary lot, 25 feet by 100 feet, is a very disad-
vantageous plot on which to erect a well lighted and well
ventilated tenement house, not so much by reason of its
narrow frontage as by reason of its great depth as com-
pared with the frontage. There is, moreover, no question
but that the kind of tenement which from commercial
reasons is now being and for a long time has been built on
this lot unit lacks adequate light and air. If by any leg-
islative act the dimensions of this lot unit could be altered
this Commission would unhesitatingly so recommend.

he Commission believes, however, that the new tene-
ment house which can be erected on a twenty-five foot
lot, under the proposed code, while necessarily inferior in
light and air to one built upon a larger lot area, is sanitary
and should not be prohibited. The twenty-five foot tene-
ment will undoubtedly gradually give place to a type of
greater frontage. The advantage and economy, both in
construction and operation, of the tenement on a larger
area are already producing such a change. An examina-
tion of the plans filed in the Building Department for new
tenement houses for the first quarter of the year 1900
shows that in 61 per cent. of the cases the owners had a
larger width of lot than 25 feet to build upon, and, there-
ap if they had so desired, have adopted a larger

it.

The same economic causes which have already abolished
the small lot from many business sections of the city,
which have been rebuilt, will be equally operative as old
tenements are torn down.
54

LICENSING OF TENEMENT HOUSES.

A subject which has had careful consideration by the
Commission has been a plan for the licensing of tenement
houses. This plan was brought to the attention of the
Commission at the very beginning of its work and has
been urged by a number of people. The idea was first
publicly suggested in 1879, and was contained in the pro-
posed amendment of the tenement house act of that year.
That part of the act, however, was not enacted. The pur-
pose of a licensing system for tenement houses is two-fold.
First, as a means of securing the strict sanitary control
of such buildings, and, secondly, of securing sufficient
revenue to support an adequate department to properly
inspect the tenement houses of the city. A plan was pre-
sented to the Commission that they should include such a
provision in their bill for a new tenement house depart-
ment, it being suggested that in addition to the certificate
to be granted by the Tenement House Commissioner upon
the completion of a new tenement house there should also
be adopted a system of granting annual certificates to
owners of all tenement houses to the effect that their
buildings complied with the tenement house laws, and for-
bidding the occupation of any tenement which had not re-
ceived such a certificate. This recommendation also carried
with it a scheme for a system of fees to be charged for
the granting of such certificates varying from $5 to $10,
depending upon the number of familiés accommodated in
the different buildings. These fees were so small that
they could hardly have been appreciably felt by the owner
of a tenement house, or distributed on the tenants in the
form of rent, but they would, however, have provided suf-
ficient revenue for the support of the Tenement House
Department. It appears that lodging houses at present
are licensed by the Board of Health, and that a system of
licensing has been carried out to a large extent, not only
in this State, but in other States and countries, affecting
a great variety of occupations. The Commission finds
55

that in Chicago, for instance, builders and architects are
licensed, while in this State plumbers, physicians and a
great variety of other occupations are licensed. While
the Commission inclines to believe that such a plan has
many advantages, it has not deemed it wise to recommend
that it be put in force without further deliberation and
at least until after a new tenement house department
has been organized and its machinery has been set in
motion.

TENEMENT HOUSE LIMITS.

Among the suggestions which have been made to the
Commission was one that a law should be passed estab-
lishing tenement house limits, similar to the present fire
limits of the city, so that after a certain date no tenement
house should be allowed to be built outside of such limits.
This recommendation was made with the purpose of safe-
guarding the outlying sections of the city from the evils
that exist in the lower portions.

The enactment of such a law, however, involves many
varied questions, to which the Commission has not been
able to give sufficient consideration to warrant it at this
time in making any recommendations.

THE BRONX.

If there be any district of the city where it would seem
that the need for tenement limits were greatest, it is the
Borough of the Bronx. This borough seems to be the
natural residence portion of Greater New York, particu-
larly for those who cannot afford to live expensively, and
who wish to enjoy suburban life. Until lately it has con-
sisted of many small settlements, some of which have
had, until annexed to New York, local governments of
their own, and have been occupied usually by people of
moderate means who built plain, small houses, usually
56

detached, on their land. The streets were generally coun-
try roads, and the life led there was rural. Since annexa-
tion the city has changed the character of the streets or
roads of this district, and now they are generally sewered
and asphalted or paved, and have police and fire protec-
tion. Within three or four years the electric street rail-
roads have been introduced, and now they extend all over
the district, with many more to be built, and all concen-
trating either at Third avenue and One Hundred and
Twenty-ninth street or at Macomb’s Dam Bridge. These
railroads, with the opening and improving of the streets,
have been the cause of the great growth of this borough
within the past few years. This growth can be said to be
principally confined to the lower and centre line of travel,
that is near or within reach of Third avenue.

The growth of this borough within the past few years
has been unprecedented, the population having increased
from 74,085 in 1890 to 200,507 in 1900.

The number of tenement houses in this borough is to-day
4,365, and the tenement house population 106,027.

The new buildings built especially at the lower end con-
sist mostly of four or five story brick tenements, built
generally in groups of from three to twenty. They have
in some cases four families on a floor, and are like the or-
dinary cheap flats which are so numerous in Harlem.
There were about seven hundred of these tenements built
in this district in 1899, and it is probable that in a very
short time there will be more than a thousand of them
erected each year in the Borough of the Bronx. It seems
to be a fact, when tenements of this kind are built in a
street, which until then had been occupied by small,
single or two family houses, that the occupants of these
small houses are driven out; then the property becomes
vacant and depreciates in value, and when sold the small
dwellings are torn down and flats are built in their place,
thus transforming a street that was once quiet and sunny
into one which is busy and dark and bringing into it a
class of tenants which is not desirable. This change of
occupancy is very marked, and if allowed to go on

.
57

unchecked, will cause in a few years the whole of the
lower part of the Borough of the Bronx to be covered
with cheap flats, housing a floating population and injur-
ing the sanitary and moral conditions of the borough.

SMALL HOUSES.

In the study of the tenement house problem, the Com-
mission has had in mind always the future development
of New York City, as well as the present needs. The Com-
mission has, therefore, caused an investigation to be made
as to the possibilities of small houses in the suburbs of New
York, to accommodate the working people of the city. A
special report on this subject has been made and forms
part of the report of the Commission. The conditions in
Brooklyn, in Queens, in the Bronx and in Richmond have
been carefully studied both as to present development and
future possibilities. The experience also of Philadelphia,
which is notably a city of homes, has been used as a
guide, and the conditions there have been personally
studied. The Commission had hoped that it might be pos-
sible to do away with the tenement house in New York
in the future, and that the greater city might develop
along the lines that Philadelphia, Buffalo and Chicago
have followed. The result of this study of the suburban
conditions of the present time do not, however, hold out
any hope to the Commission that the tenement house
system will in the near future be abolished. Even with
the great improvement that is soon to come in this city
in the way of rapid transit and by the development of
tunnels and bridges, the conditions will remain the same
because of proportionate increase of the city’s population.

MUNICIPAL TENEMENTS.

Still another suggestion was that New York, following in
this respect the example of some cities in Great Britain,
58

should build_model tenements for its people at public ex-
pense. The Commission is not prepared to recommend such
“PLAS an enlargement of municipal functions. No good purpose
» could be thereby served, At most, such public buildings
“would better the living conditions of a favored few who
had sufficient influence to secure apartments in them, and
even these would better their living conditions at the sac-
rifice of self-dependence. If such model tenements are
intended to set an example and to demonstrate what can
be done to provide better housing conditions, they will
furnish no better.demonstration than private benevolence
has furnished in the past.and can be relied upon. to. fur-
nish in the future. If they are intended to house the
working people, they can at most house only a very small
proportion, and by so housing this small proportion they
will prevent the greater number from being effectively
housed by other means, for private enterprise will not
/ compete with municipal bounty, and when-cities begin to
_build tenements.other tenement building will cease. No
large city can provide homes for all its working peo-
ple. So vast a project could not be seriously contem-
plated. If by providing for a few it prevented provision
for the many, the average condition of the working
classes would be worse than before the city began to build.
Nor would there be any limit to the scope of municipal
building operations if once they were begun. If cities,
however, are to become landlords at all, where should the
wage line be drawn between those for whom they should
and those for whom they should not provide? Where, in
practice, would the line be drawn in American cities
where democracy reigns supreme, and the limit of public
bounty would be ultimately fixed by popular vote? Even
if municipal building did not stop private enterprise, and
the municipal buildings were managed without favoritism

or those evils which too often attend government _owner-
__Ship, other objections would still exist. <Tsnemnaut house
management is largely a question of good housekeeping

and prompt business method, involving wide discretion
and full power. The average city official would not be

 
59

_likely to be a good housekeeper; nor, even if he were able
"to forget that he owed his place in some degree at least to
those whom he was aiding his city to house, could he use
“prompt business methods and exercise individual discretion
under the necessarily cumbrous and mechanical methods of
government system... The municipal tenement \ would in-
~évitably be forced tthe wall in competition with similar
buildings under private ownership. Its rooms would be
frequently vacant or its rents would be lowered to hold
tenants, and it would become, more than before, an in- ek
creasing burden to the taxpayer, without any correspond- A
ing good to the working classes. Moreover, such build-
ings would introduce a new element into public a a
already sufficiently complex, and add so many more to the a
already large number of government servants. If ten}
anted with a view to votes they might be so located and ae
utilized by the political party in power-as to-perpetuate its
_ control. Pr
Tent cf

TAX EXEMPTION FOR MODEL TENEMENTS.

Another suggestion was that the building of model tene-
ments which conformed to certain specified requirements
of plan, should be encouraged by making them, wholly or
partly, exempt from taxation, either perpetually or for a
term of years muuicipal aid is to be extended at al
to tenement hovdse building, this would be more effective
and open to less objection than any other method> It
would be more effective because it would probably ensure
the building of more tenements than could be erected
under municipal ownership. It would be less objection-
able because this increased accommodation for the working
classes could be thus obtained at less expense to the city.
However large a decrease in the tax revenue of the city
would be thereby effected, it would undoubtedly be less
than the increased tax burden which would follow muni-
cipal building and municipal management of such build-
ings. The Commission, however, is not ready to recom-
60

~~~" mend any such change in the present system of taxation.
It would be a distinct departure from our present public
policy which taxes alike all real estate used for business
or private purposes. It would diminish tax revenue. It
would change property values by artificially decreasing
the value of the improved tenement completed this year
and artificially increasing the value of the same tenement
built next year. It would immediately increase the
income of the property owners whose new tenements
were exempted from tax burdens, and would only
remotely decrease the rents of the wage earners, in whose
interests it was adopted, for until the increase in tenement
accommodation became very marked it is not likely that
rent rates would be diminished. It would involve draw-
ing some line between tenements for the poorer classes
which were to be encouraged by exemption and other
tenements not intended to be so exempt. Drawing such
a line would be extremely difficult, however it were to be
drawn, whether on the number of rooms to the apartment
or the size of the rooms or otherwise. The exemption
would be likely to be abused and be claimed by those who
were not intended to share in these benefits.
It seems to us proper, however, to point out that thé
C construction of improved dwellings for the laboring
classes on any large scale, is far more likely to depend on
the efforts of corporations than.of individuals, and that

the present-statuhes regarding taxation restrain the efforts
of_corporations in this direction. fadividual investors
may erect tenement HOGSes and pay simply the tax on real
estate, but corporations making precisely the same invest-
oS ment must pay the annual tax on their capital stock in
addition to the same tax on the real estate.7 The ex-
perience of London and many other large cities besides

' New York proves that the construction of improved dwell-
ings for working people on any such scale as may respond
in fair degree to the needs of a great city is certain to de-
pend mostly on the efforts of corporations, because indi-
viduals shrink from undertakings which involve a large
expenditure of money, a large responsibility for adminis-
61

tration and the necessity of a close supervision with the
Pa of only a modest return on the investment.
he State would lose nothing by relieving the capital

stock of companies whose sole object is to erect improved
dwellings from annual taxation on their stock, because all
such corporations. can, and we believe do now, avoid the ex-
tra taxation by incurring mortgage indebtedness; but this
proceeding repels many conservative philanthropic invest-
ors/ Thus, while the State gains nothing, the movement
for the construction of improved dwellings for working
people is retarded under the present laws. Such legisla-
tion as would place corporations whose sole investment
is in real estate on the same basis as individual property
owners by relieving them from annual taxation on their
stock, would be equitable and would stimulate the con-
struction of improved dwellings for the laboring classes.

This question, however, relates rather to the general
policy of the State respecting taxation than to the special
sphere of this Commission.

HOW THE CITY CAN AND SHOULD AID TENE-

MENT HOUSE DWELLERS. = 5
=

There are expenditures clearly within the sphere of °
Municipal action which the City can and should make for =
the benefit of its tenement house population. FQ,
he streets in tenement districts. should be paved with ¥
sphalt, or other smooth pavement so that they can be
more readily kept clean. This is especially desirable in
the crowded tenement parts of the City where the street
is constantly used by so large a part of the population, and
particularly by the children. It is far more important
there than in other residential districts. Gratifying pro-
gress in this direction has been made in the tenement
house quarters of New York. hese streets should be kept
clean, and garbage and ashes should be promptly re ae
Prompt and complete performance of these Municipal
duties is nowhere more important than among the tene-

 
  
  
 
62

ments. The standard of street cleaning has been notably
raised within recent years.

The streets should be well lighted. In this direction,
too, there has been improvement. There should be more
public conveniences and lavatories. “There should be more
small. parks and playgrounds. There should be public
bathing facilities. a

Within these spheres there is ample scope for Municipal
activity and expenditure, and it is within these spheres
that such activity and expenditure can accomplish the
greatest good for the greatest number.

BATHS.

It has been difficult to decide whether or not to
recommend the compulsory introduction of bathing facili-
ties into all new tenement houses. While all the Com-
missioners believe that such bathing facilities should be
afforded to the tenement dweller, many of them think it
questionable whether at the present time this should be
made compulsory by legislation. It would be manifestly
unwise to compel the providing of a private bath for eache
+-set of rooms. The only alternative would be the provid-
ing of common baths to be used by a number of families
in some part of the building. This does not commend
itself to the judgment of the Commission. Tenement
dwellers say that these baths would rarely be kept clean
and that they would be loath to use them. Moreover, the
Commission finds that ordinary commercial considerations
are likely to settle this question in the near future. Out
of 311 of the new tenement houses which were inspected
in the Borough of Manhattan, 125 buildings, or 40 per cent.
of all, had a private bath for each apartment, and in
Brooklyn the percentage waseven greater. While natural
causes will probably care for tenement houses to be erected
in the future, the need of bathing facilities in the existing
tenement houses is very great. New York is far behind
many of the smaller cities of this country in providing
63

public baths for its people. A special report has been pre-
pared upon this subject, showing the special needs of New
York, and also what has been done in other American
cities along these lines. The Commission would urge that
steps be taken for the establishment of a number of public
baths in the tenement districts of the city.

RECREATION GROUNDS, PARKS AND PIERS.

In the growth of the city too little thought has been
given to the necessity of steadily increasing the number of
parks in proportion to the increase of the population and its
extension over new territory. The failure on the part of
our public authorities to make such provision has left large
tracts of our city without any open air centres for recrea-
tion.

In the recent movements to secure open spaces for the
health and enjoyment of the people the“old park idea has
been gradually altered and in its place hasYrisen a strong de-
sire for recreation grounds, open air gymnasiums, spaces for
games and-exettiics, and ere open air concerts
might be supplied to the public? The old park with trees
and flowers possessed many attractions which should not
be wholly sacrificed, but its formidable sign, ‘‘ Keep off
the Grass,” and its iron railings diminished its value as a
place of recreation. This loss was greater as the city in-
creased in size and vacant lots that had served as play
grounds were taken for building purposes. The modern
recreation grounds, over which all may roam without fear
of arrest, fulfill the needs and desires of a greater part of
our population in our crowded districts. Such grounds,
when wisely planned, contain one section for games, ex-
ercises and sports, and another for the use of mothers with
young children and for those who may wish to sit quietly
in the open air. In this latter section music stands have
often been provided. Already these play grounds, in
several instances, have been supplied at private expense
with gymnastic equipment and with teachers. These
64

private enterprises have adequately demonstrated the
value of such provisions for the public welfare. But it
seems hardly creditable to the city that the city itself
should not bear the expense of adequately maintaining
and protecting these grounds.

The Commission recommends the enactment of a law
giving the city the power to make annual expenditures
for the extension of its system of recreation grounds and
parks. Such a law, limited, however, in its operation to
two new parks, was passed on the recommendation of the
Commission of 1894.

It has been suggested that a park in a crowded district
could be obtained at comparatively small expense by tak-
ing only the interior of a block and permitting the erection
of model tenements upon the two exterior strips abutting
on the streets. This suggestion has been embodied in a
special paper, which forms part of this report. The sug-
gestion seems to the Commission to be an admirable one.
By its adoption the City would be enabled to obtain needed
small parks and recreation grounds at comparatively small
expense, and new tenements could be constructed to ac-
commodate, at remunerative rents, quite as many people
as are now inadequately housed by old tenements on the
same area. .

The Recreation Piers have also proved to be a means of
healthful enjoyment for many. In some few instances it
has been called to our attention that these Piers have be-
come resorts of the disorderly to such an extent that
careful parents would not allow their children to visit
them. This fact, we believe, emphasizes the importance
of having careful and intelligent caretakers. Without
such caretakers the Recreation Pier is apt to become dis-
orderly through the action, we believe, not of the majority
of those who use the Piers, but of a small minority. We
believe, therefore, that greater emphasis should be placed
upon their management, as their essential value is deter-
mined by the presence or absence of such superintend-
ence.
65

SCHOOLS.

While not making specific recommendations the Com-
mission desires to call attention to the great benefits that
have resulted to tenement house dwellers from the grad-
ual opening of the Public Schools for various uses outside
of school hours. We note the establishment of ‘public
lectures, of evening classes and of vacation schools, the
opening of the school grounds for the use of the children
under competent supervision during the summer months,
the meeting of boys’ and girls’ clubs in school buildings
during the evening and the establishment of reading rooms
supplied with papers and books for the use of persons of
all ages. These steps of progress indicate that the Board
of Education recognizes the wide responsibility resting
upon the department of education to maintain a broad
view of its opportunities and obligations. These various
agencies appear to your Commission to have a proper
relation to the work of public education and have certainly
contributed to the health, welfare and intelligence of the
laboring people. We therefore record our belief that what
has already been done has been of great value, and recom-
mend the further extension of these uses of school prop-
erty. :

The Commission believes that the schools may properly
become the centre of much of the thoughtful life of the
community in which they are located, and that to extend
the use of school buildings in the evening under proper
restrictions, to literary societies, benefit associations and
other bodies having a serious purpose, would promote
intelligence and social progress among our tenement
house dwellers.

TUBERCULOSIS.

The intimate relation and connection of tuberculosis
with the evils of the tenement house system has been

ee as “Ty

ra

4

a
8

~ t
ane

Pe
66

already alluded to. As has been stated by Dr. Biggs and
Dr. Guerard, in the special papers prepared by them upon
this subject, the first step in meeting this problem will be
the improvement of the conditions of the houses in which
the poor people of this city live. It is apparent, however,
that many other things ought to be done to wipe out this
disease which carries off so large a proportion of the pop-
ulation. The Board of Health should organize asystem of
inspection of the rooms of all tuberculous patients and
should see that they are properly disinfected after a death
from this cause, and also that whenever a tuberculous
patient is moved out of a tenement house, the rooms
should be disinfected. Proper hospitals and sanatoria
for persons in both the incipient and advanced stages of
this disease should be provided in adequate number.

PROSTITUTION IN THE TENEMENT HOUSES.

In the course of its investigations the Commission has
become painfully aware of one evil from which it believes
tenement house dwellers should be protected, and pro-
tected as they are not under existing conditions and ex:
isting laws. That evil is the introduction of the practice
of prostitution into reputable tenement houses. The forci-
ble and earnest protest of one of our best known moral and
religious leaders has properly.awakened all classes of so-
ciety to the horrors of this situation. But the determi-.
nation of the Commission to investigate the evil dated
back to the very beginning of the Commission’s work,
many months prior to the publication of that protest and
to the recent anti-vice crusade.

The steady growth of vice in the tenement houses has
come under the personal observation of members of the
Commission. Its special investigations, reinforced by the
unanimous testimony of many witnesses, including the
tenement house dwellers, labor representatives and phil-
anthropic workers, lead it to most earnestly protest against
such conditions.
AN
x.

67

It appears that prostitution has spread greatly among
the tenement houses. This condition has recently
grown worse, nor does it appear that there
has been sufficient effort on the part of the
public authorities to suppress it. Evidence has
been submitted that the protests of the dwellers
in the tenement houses immediately affected, as well as
those of their neighbors, have been alike unheeded, and in
spite of the best efforts of careful parents, the very house
in which a family has dwelt, selected because it was
thought to be free from this curse, has furnished. the
temptation against which parental care and anxiety have
been in vain. The dangers of this situation to those of
tender age in the tenement houses is alarming. We have
ascertained that when dissolute women enter a tenement
house their first effort is to make friends with the chil-
dren. Children have been lured into their rooms where
they have beheld sights from which they should be pro-
tected. Frequently these women engage one family in the
tenement to do their laundry work, another to do their
cooking, and still further financial arrangements are made
with the housekeeper. The patronage which they can
distribute is thus utilized to make friends and to purchase
the silence of those who might otherwise object to their
presence. The children of respectable families are often
sent to the prostitutes on various errands, and. because of
the gifts made to the children these women become
important personages in the house and their affairs the
subject of frequent conversation. The familiarity with
vice, often in its most flagrant forms, possessed by very
young children because of the condition just described has
profoundly impressed the Commission. Several physi-
cians have informed us that though they as children had
lived in quarters of the city where prostitution existed,
they had not possessed a tenth of the knowledge of it
which they find almost universal among tenement house
children of the present day. The anxiety of reputable
parents living in houses upon which these harlcts have
descended is most pitiful. One of our Charity workers
iG |

68

stated that she had heard women living in tenement
houses thus infected bemoan the birth of a daughter be-
cause of their fear of the dangers to which she would be
exposed. And the same worker declared that scarcely a
day passed that some woman did not confide to her a
mother’s anxiety and despair regarding this situation.

But it is not the children alone who are contaminated!
Boys and young men living in the tenement houses are
tempted, and become addicted to habits of immorality,
because of the constant temptation placed before them
almost at the door of their home. Still more distressing
is the condition of young girls. Such girls are often work-
ing in difficult situations with long hours, small pay and
hard work. When they return to their homes tired and.
perhaps discouraged at the end of the day’s toil, they see
their neighbors living lives of apparent ease, dressing far
better than they can afford to dress on their limited wages,
and showing by their manner that they feel themselves
superior to those who are foolish enough to toil when they
might be at leisure. The very sight of this contrast with
their own condition raises despairing questions, disap-
pointments and bitterness. After the shock occasioned
by the knowledge of the character of the prostitutes has
subsided, as it inevitably will, if the evil is encountered
daily, the girls are led to consider seriously the words of
the tempters. The fall of many girls, daughters of honest
and reputable parents, has, undoubtedly, been due to this
contamination. From the statement of many in a posi-
tion to know facts, we have been led to believe that more
girls have been started, in recent years, upon a life of im-
morality, because of their associations in the tenement
houses, than by all other means combined that supply this
traffic.

Voicing the protests of tenement house dwellers, clergy-
men, teachers and many others interested in the welfare
of tenement house people, the Commission recommends
legislation of a stringent character for the suppression of
prostitution in tenement houses. While there may be
serious difference of opinion regarding the subject as a
69

whole, there can be no difference of opinion regarding the
enforced mingling in the same house of old and young
with prostitutes and their procurers. Wherever this evil
may exist, and however it may be dealt with, it should
be absolutely eradicated from the dwellings of the poor.

For these reasons the Commission recommends the
enactment of more severe penalties against prostitution
in tenement houses. Its proposed code subjects a tene-
ment house, any part of which is used as a house of pros-
titution, to a penalty of one thousand dollars, which is to
be made a lien upon the premises. The fact that a tene-
ment house is used for such purposes is made presumptive
evidence that it is so occupied with the knowledge of the
owner or lessee, with a proviso that such presumption may
be rebutted by appropriate evidence. An innocent owner
is protected by providing that the lease may be void at his
option in case the tenement house beso used. The gen-
eral reputation of the premises in the neighborhood is
made competent evidence of such use of a house, with the
proviso that such evidence shall not be sufficient to war-
rant a judgment without corroborative evidence, and
women who reside in or commit prostitution in a tene-
ment house are made punishable by imprisonment instead
of by fine as has been customary.

POLICY.

Prostitution, however, is not by any means the only
form of vice to be found in tenement districts. The very
serious evils of certain forms of gambling and their effects
upon the general morale of the community, as well as
their effect upon its industrial well being, has been set
forth in one of the special reports presented by the Com-
mission. The temptations of the game of policy it ap-
pears are especially open to the tenement house dweller,
and the Commission urges upon the Legislature that every
means be taken to stamp out and eradicate this serious
menace to the welfare of the community.
70

TENEMENT HOUSE LABOR.

The Commission has made an investigation of the con-
ditions of labor in the tenement houses, especially with
reference to the making of garniétits;-.artifici ers
and. feathers. The evils of cigar making in such build-
ings, regarding which a forceful presentation was yas made to

_the Legislature ten years ago, have to a large extent dis-
appeared. Through the invention of a machine called
the suction_table,_the-manufact ture 0! f cigars is being-gra-
dually removed..into. factories; and it is the opinion of
those best acquainted with the trade, that it will soon dis-
appear from the tenement houses. But the opinions of
workers in this trade regarding the general conditions of
tenement house labor are in accord with the statements
of workers in other trades and our own investigations.
The law requiring the licensing of w ork carried on in
tenement houses has undoubtedly led to certain improve-
ments, but the very attempt to enforce the law has fur-
nished additional proof of the undesirability of the condi-
tions. Where workers apply for a license they may be
investigated, but if a license is refused, it is not always
possible to be sure that work will be discontinuedy and if
the license is not applied for, it will only b chance
that the tenement house workshop will be discovered.
Tenement house labor is generally carried on in the
dwelling room of the family, where old and young ar are
crowded inwith the workers. The danger of contagion
when any member of the family is ill, therefore, is very
‘great. A member of the Commission has seen garments
piled on the floor in the midst of dirt and rubbish, garments
stacked on the bed and some of them used as pillows for
sick children, and in one instance garments were found
stored in the same room with a sick man apparently in an
advanced stage of tuberculosis. Such conditions the Com-
mission regards as a serious menace to public health. It be-
lieves that manufacturing cannot be continued in the tene-
ment houses with safety to the general public except at
71

great expense in the way of investigation and supervision,
in view of the immense aynount of labor at present carried
on in tenement house The Commission does not, how-
ever, feel warranted in récommending the absolute abolimsy
tion of tenement house labor,» It recommends the amend-
ment of Chapter 191 of the Laws s of 1899 by the insertion
of a proviso that ‘no license’ shall be issued for any room
‘in a tenement. house containing less than {, 250 ‘cubic feet
of air, or yr used for the. purpose of cooking, eating or ‘sleep-
ing,.or for children, or otherwise than as a awoLlahop, This
recommendation regarding the size of the room in which
labor should be allowed is based upon knowledge of the
constant use by all the members of the family of any
room connected with a living apartment. It is also based

‘ upon the universally accepted fact that the average tene-
ment house family consists of five members, though un-
doubtedly in frequent instances the boarders taken by such
families make the average size higher. Among the
Talan-garment-workers it has been frequently found that
two and even three families, making a total of from ten
to fifteen individuals, occupy a single apartment. But
taking the conservative estimate and applying the pro-
vision of the law that a workshop must have at least 250
feet of cubic space for each worker, your Commission be-
lieves that 1,250 feet should be required as the minimum
size of any workroom in a tenement house, because ex-
perience has shown that an average of not less than five
persons will use the room for a greater or less part of the
day.

This requirement of space seems especially impor-
tant in view of the disposition of builders to make the
living room of the family constantly smaller and smaller.

The Commission also recommends an increase in the
force of the Factory Inspector’s Department to enable
him to adequately enforce the law in tenement houses.
72

SANITARY CONDITIONS.

The results of examinations of a number of typical tene-
ment houses which form the subject of a special report
included with the Commission’s report, show on the whole
that the present plumbing laws, with one or two slight
exceptions, are, if properly enforced, entirely adequate
to meet the present needs. They also point out serious
evils in old tenement houses, which imperatively call for
remedy.

DEATH RATES.

The subject of death rates in tenement house districts
is one which the Commission carefully considered at the
beginning of its work, especially as to whether it was de-
sirable to make a study of death rates in such districts as
compared with other districts of the city. After consul-
tation, however, with leading experts upon this subject,
Dr. John S. Billings, Dr. Roger S. Tracy and Professor —
Franklin H. Giddings, it was found that no data upon this
subject could be obtained that would point to any definite
conclusion, without more extended study than could pos-
sibly be given within the time at the disposal of the Com-
mission, because of the fact that so many elements enter
into the question that it is difficult to draw reliable con-
clusions. The Commission finds from such study of this

subject as it bas made that the death rate cannot be
deemed a criterion of bad sanitary Y conditions. ( In certain
“blocks iti the Italian “qtiarter~of th ty th i

1€ city there‘is a very
high death rate, while in certain other blocks, half a mile
away, in the Jewish quarter, the death rate is only one-
half as great as the average death rate of the city; -yet_in
the latter district there was a greater population, the ten-
emeént Houses were taller and the. general “sanitary, condi-

 

 

_tions were worse.) Similar instances may be observed in™~

other parts of the city. The explanation of this lies in

the fact that race characteristics, the character of occu-

ree -
73

ation, the nature of the soil on which the building is
located, and numerous other elements must also be taken
into consideration.

. IMMIGRATION.

The subject of immigration is intimately connected with
the tenement house problem in this city. Its varying
volume and the proportion which different nationalities
bear to each other are set forth in the special report on
this subject. While the Commission appreciates that no
State legislation is practicable upon this subject, yet it
would call attention to the fact that the tenement house
system is exerting quite as detrimental an effect upon
the newly arrived immigrant, as the newly arrived immi-
grant is exerting on the tenement house.

TENEMENT EVILS AS SEEN BY THE
TENANTS.

The Commission has at all times sought from tenement
dwellers their views upon this subject, believing that they,
better than any one else, know the evils that need to be
remedied. It has, therefore, submitted with this report a
special paper containing the views of a number of such
persons. It has been stated so often in the past that
tenement dwellers will not appreciate improvements in
tenement houses, that it seemed to the Commission
especially important that the tenement house dweller
should speak for himself on the subject, in his own way.

THE CITY OF BUFFALO.

That comparatively little space is given is this report to
tenement conditions in the City of Buffalo is not due to
any failure on the part of the Commission to recognize
74

the importance of this second great city of the State,
which by its enterprise and rapid growth is beginning to
rival the great metropolis. It is because in Buffalo, thanks
to wise forethought and regulation, aided by favorable
natural conditions, the laboring classes have been housed
largely in the small single family house, and the tenement
evil, so far as it is caused by construction, hardly exists.
Indeed, the restrictive regulations of Buffalo as respects,
for instance, the minimum size of courts and the number
of cubic feet of air space allotted to each individual, are
not only in advance of those now existing in New York,
but are more stringent than the provisions of the new code
submitted by this Commission. Not only is Buffalo in ad-
vance of New York in its building requirements for new
tenements, but it is in the lead as respects public bathing
facilities. It has had in operation for several years a sys-
tem of inexpensive and economically conducted public
baths in its most crowded districts. The special paper on
the situation in Buffalo which forms part of this report
sets forth in detail the progress already made by Buffalo
in tenement house reform.

THE OTHER CITIES OF THE STATE.

It is quite evident that tenement house legislation should
not be confined merely to cities of the first class, and the
advantage of regulating this important subject in time is
fully illustrated by the experience and present advanta-
geous position of Buffalo. That conditions there should
be so favorable is largely due to the fact that the dangers
of unrestricted tenement house construction were realized
at an early date, and measures taken to prevent them be-
fore many unsanitary tenements had been erected and
before property interests would thereby be affected. The
scope of this Commission’s duties has not extended be-
yond cities of the first class. No examination has been
made into the tenement house conditions of other cities.
Facts have been brought to the attention of the Commis-
75

sion, however, which indicate that there is grave danger
lest other cities of the State repeat the errors of New
York. The small size of a city furnishes no guarantee
that it will be free from tenement house evils and consti-
tutes no reason why proper regulation should be neglected.
A city of a neighboring State, though it contains only
80,000 inhabitants, has conditions quite as bad in some
respects as those in New York. In this city not only are
there old dilapidated wooden and brick buildings which
formerly were private residences now occupied by sev-
eral families, but also there are numerous tenement |
houses erected for the special purpose of housing large
numbers of people, and recently there have been erected
a number of flats and tenement houses on the same plan
as the New York double-decker, dumb-bell tenement,
with small air-shafts.

For this reason the Commission recommends that at-
tention be given in time to the housing conditions in other
cities throughout the State, with the view of taking the
same measures for self-protection as have been so success:
fully initiated in Buffalo.

STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

The Commission has deemed it expedient to put within
the power of the State Board of Health, upon request of
the Governor, the express right to make any investigation
into tenement house conditions in cities of the first class
that he may deem expedient. The health conditions of
the large cities of the State directly affect the State at
large, and if there be any neglect of proper sanitary super-
vision on the part of the local authorities it should be
clearly within the power of the State to at least ascertain
by investigation the facts, knowledge of which must
necessarily precede the application of any effectual
remedy.
76

CONDITIONS IN OTHER LARGE AMERICAN
CITIES.

A special report dealing with this subject has been pre-
pared and forms part of the Commission’s report. It ap-
pears from the facts therein presented that in practically
none of the twenty-seven largest cities of this country,
except Boston, Cincinnati, Jersey City and Hartford, is
there what can be called a tenement house problem, and
that in the great majority of these cities the tenement
house, as known in New York, does not exist. The poor
people and working people live generally in small one and
two story houses, containing at most two families, while
often the houses are owned by: the workingmen them-
selves. Chicago, with a population of a million and a
half, has practically no tenement house problem; it is the
same with Philadelphia. with a population of a million
and a quarter; St. Louis, with a population of over half a
million, Cleveland, Buffalo, San Francisco, Pittsburgh,
New Orleans, Detroit, Milwaukee and Washington, each
of which cities has a population of over a quarter of a
million, also have no tenement house problem. Thereare,
of course, in each one of these cities certain bad housing
conditions, which gives them what might he called a hous-
ing problem, but this is distinct from the tenement house
problem as known in New York and Boston.

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN EUROPEAN CITIES.

The housing problem in London is the foremost polit-
ical question of the day, and the Commission has there-
fore sought to ascertain what evils exist in leading Euro-
pean cities, in the hope that the remedies adopted to cope
with the evils there might be of assistance in framing
recommendations for New York. A special report upon
this subject has been prepared and is submitted with the
report of the Commission. It appears from this study
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Plan for 50 ft. lot or 3 of it for 25 ft. lot.
17

that the conditions which exist in New York are practi-
cally unknown in any European city. In London the
majority of the tenement houses are small two-story and
three-story buildings and the greatest evils are cellar
dwellings and overcrowding in single rooms. The evil of
overcrowding on the lots and the very serious evils of lack
of light and air which form the main part of New York’s
problem are practically unknown in London. Similar
conditions exist in Manchester, Liverpool and other large
cities. Conditions in Glasgow and Edinburgh are some-
what different. There the nearest approach to the New
York type of tenement house is to be found, as tall
buildings accommodating numbers of people exist in these
Scotch cities. The evils of lack of light and air, however,
and the evils of the air-shaft are not known in either of
these communities. The same is true of conditions in
Paris, Berlin and other European cities.

CAN TENEMENT HOUSES BE BUILT UNDER
THE NEW CODE WHICH WILL BE COM-
MERCIALLY SUCCESSFUL ?

This question has been constantly before the Commission
in framing the new Code, because it was satisfied that no
set of laws should be recommended which would prevent
new tenements from being built from business considera-
tions. However satisfied members of the Commission
have been that the law presented by them would accom-
plish this result, they have deemed it expedient to demon-
strate, not only by professional opinion but by actual plans,
how practicable their recommendations were. To this end
the Commission requested a number of leading architects of
the City who had special knowledge and experience in plan-
ning tenement houses, and who, with great public spirit,
placed their services at the disposal of the Commission, to
prepare plans for tenement houses which could be con-
structed under the new Code. Such plans have been pre-
pared by the following architects: Mr. George S. Drew, |
78

& Short, Messrs. Israels & Harder, Messrs. Stephenson &
Greene and Mr. Joseph Wolf. These plans demonstrate
that commercial tenement houses can be constructed
under the provisions of the new Code, not only on 50-foot
lots, 100-foot lots and 75-foot lots, but on’ 25-foot lots as”
well, and that upon a twenty-five-foot lot there is no diffi-
culty in planning a tenement house with twelve rooms on
each floor, with adequate provision for light and air. This
is as great a number of rooms as Could be now obtained if
the present law limiting the percentage of lot to 65 per
cent. was strictly enforced. One architect has drawn a
plan for a 50-foot tenement in which 28 rooms cai be ob-
_ tained on a floor, which is fully as many as can now be
obtained in the’ worst type of double decker. The Com-
mission submits with this report a sufficient number of
plans prepared by these architects to illustrate the entire
practicability of the new Code. It regrets not to be able
to present all, owing to the expense of printing so many
illustrations.

|e Mr. Ernest Flagg, Mr. R. W. Gibson, Messrs. Harde

 

CONCLUSION. *

As the members of the Commission have proceeded in
the work entrusted to them by the Legislature, they have
been increasingly and profoundly impressed with the
variety and importance of the interests involved. There
is not a tenement house question. There are a thousand
tenement house questions. In New York certainly there
is no group of questions that so profoundly affects the
public welfare or the welfare of so many of the public.

While the fundamental evils of insufficient light and air,
insufficient fire protection and inadequate sanitary arrange-
ments, as well asthat most fundamental evil of all, failure
to properly enforce the law, will continue in greater or less
degree, there are some phases of the tenement house ques-
tion which are likely to change and some new remedies
which will have to be applied, either to meet new condi-
79

tions or to take the place of remedies which have proved
themselves to be ineffective. The Commission of 1894
recommended the abolition of the then éxistin ing permanent
“Tevéiiént House Board, consisting of certain city officials
‘who b became members of the Board by virtue of their office,
because this Board had.done, nothing, and, with the other
more important official duties imposed upon its members,
was unlikely to doanything. It recommended, however,
that another statutory commission upon the subject be
created by the Legislature every five years. In the recom-
mendation for a periodic appointment of ‘such a commis-

sion the present Commission joins. In no other way can
the shifting conditions of the various tenement house
problems be so effectively met.

If, however, a separate tenement house department be
created directly charged with tenement house supervision
and with no other distracting duties, the necessity for such
a commission, so far as New York City is concerned, will
be much diminished. ae

The Commission has sought by every means in its —
power to obtain expert information and expert opinion.
Immediately after its appointment the Commission in-
vited the heads of different City Departments cllarged
with the supervision of tenement houses to meet them
informally. This invitation was accepted by the heads of
the Building Department, Health Department and Fire
Department, who courteously placed all the information

-intheir departments at the disposal of the Commission,
and have afforded it every facility,”

It has also been especially fortunate in having had the —
hearty co-operation of the leading architectural societies
of the city, the New York Chapter of the American In-
stitute of Architects, the Architectural League, and the
Society of Beaux Arts Architects having appointed special
Committees to co-operate with the Tenement House Com-
mission.

The Commission desires to acknowledge its indebtedness
to these and to all the many persons who have co-oper-
rated with the Commission, and to acknowledge its

  

   
  
  
80

special sense of indebtedness to those persons who have
prepared for the Commission special reports upon differ-
ent subjects, as well as to the architects who have pre-
pared plans for the Commission showing what tenement
houses can be built under the proposed code of tenement
house laws. The Commission appreciates the public
spirit prompting this work, and wishes to place on record
its sense of deep obligation, to all who have in these and
in other ways helped the Commission in its work.

The recommendations of the Commission embodied in
this report represent the conclusions reached after careful
consideration of each question from the various sides.
The more important subjects have been considered and
acted upon by the Commission asa whole. While this hag
added greatly to the burdens of the Commissioners, it
gives them greater confidence in the conclusions thus
reached.

There havebeen no differences of opinion between mem-
bers of the Commission except those necessarily incident
to the earnest consideration of important public questions
by thoughtful men, and these have been so few in
number and have been discussed so freely and frankly, as
to only emphasize the harmony of aim and spirit which
has characterized all their deliberations.

The Secretary, as well as the Counsel and Associate
Counsel, have taken part in almost all its deliberations,
and have had quite as much part in making and framing
its conclusions as if each of them had been entitled to a
personal vote. It would belittle their services to make
them the subject of any special commendation.

The present Commission is larger in number than any
of its predecessors. It includes among its members and
officers men who have planned tenement houses as
architects, men who have constructed them as builders,
men who have managed them as agents, men who have
lived in them, and men who are now in control of
them as owners. It also includes those who have been
officially connected with all the New York City depart-
ments charged with tenement supervision—the Health De-
81

partment, the Building Department and the Fire Depart-
ment, as well as others who are interested in tenement
house conditions from the philanthropic side. A Commis-
sion thus constituted has had unusual facilities for looking
at the subject from all these different points of view, and
more particularly, perhaps, from the point of view of the
practical business man.

New York, February 18, 1901.
Respectfully submitted,

ROBERT W. DE Forest, Chairman.
RayMonD F. ALMIRALL.
Hucu Bonner.
CHARLES S. Brown.
Pau. D. CRAVATH.
WIiLurAM A. DOUGLAS.
Otto M. EIDiirz.
GrorGE B. Fowner.
WILLIAMS LANSING.
WILLIAM J. O'BRIEN.
James B. REYNOLDS.

I, N. PHELPS STOKES.
MyLes TIERNEY.
ALFRED T. WHITE.

LAWRENCE VEILLER,
Secretary.
82

A SUMMARIZED STATEMENT OF THE PRO-
CEEDINGS OF THE COMMISSION.

The Tenement House Commission, appointed under the
authority of Chapter 279, of the Laws of 1900, submits
herewith the following summarized account of its pro-
ceedings.

The law under which it was appointed is as follows :

CHAPTER 279 oF THE LAWS OF 1900.

Aw Act appointing a committee to examine into the tene-
ment house question in cities of the first class, and to
report to the next legislature a code of tenement
house laws.

Became a law April 4, 1900, with the approval of the
governor.
Passed, three-fifths being present.

The People of the State of New York, represented in
Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows :

‘“‘Srorron 1. The governor of the state of New York’
is herewith authorized and empowered to appoint a
commission to be known as the tenement house com-
mission. Said commission shall elect a chairman
and appoint a secretary; it may employ such counsel,
assistants and experts from time to time as it may
deem necessary. The total expense of the committee
shall not exceed the sums hereinafter appropriated. It
may fix the number of commissioners necessary for a
quorum, make rules for its government and direction
of its work, and fill the vacancies in the commission
caused by death or otherwise.

Sc. 2. The duties of said commission shall be to
make a careful examination into the tenement houses
in cities of the first class; their condition as to the
construction, healthfulness, safety, rentals and the
83

effect of tenement house life on the health, education,
savings and morals of those who live in tenement
houses, and all other phases of the so-called tenement
house question in these cities that can affect the pub-
lic welfare.

Sec. 3. The commission shall have power to sub-
poena witnesses before it, with or without papers, by
a subpcena signed by the chairman, to administer
them oaths and to compel their attendance by attach-
ment to be issued on the order of the commission and
served by any policeman of said cities; witnesses
shall be paid the fee paid witnesses in courts of
record.

Sec. 4. The members of the commission shall re-
ceive no compensation for their services, but the
expenses and disbursements incurred by them in the
discharge of their duties as said commissioners shall
be paid. The commission shall have power to fix the
compensation of its counsel and other employees.

Sec. 5. Said commission shall make a full report of
its work to the next legislature at its opening or as
soon thereafter as practicable, with such recommenda-
tions as it deems wise to enable the best and highest
possible condition for tenement house life in said
cities to be attained, and the commission shall cease
to exist when such report is made.

Sec. 6. The sum of ten thousand dollars is hereby
appropriated out of any moneys in the treasury not
otherwise appropriated for the purpose of carrying
out the provisions of this act. The expenses, dis-
bursements, payment of counsel fees and compensa-
tion of other employees of the commission shall be
made on the approval of the chairman of the com-
mission and the audit of the comptroller.

Src. 7. This act shall take effect immediately.”

The Commission was appointed on April 16th by the
Governor, the following persons being named as members:
84.

Raymond F. Almirall, Hugh Bonner, Paul D. Cravath,
Robert W. de Forest, William A. Douglas, Otto M. Eidlitz,
George B. Fowler, F. Norton Goddard, E. R. L. Gould,
Williams Lansing, William J. O’Brien, James B. Reynolds,
I. N. Phelps Stokes, Myles Tierney and Alfred T. White.
Dr. Gould being unable to accept the appointment, Mr.
Charles S. Brown was appointed in his place. The Com-
mission held its first meeting on April 20th. At this
meeting a permanent organization was effected by the
election of Mr. Robert W. de Forest as Chairman of the
Commission. On April 26th Mr. Lawrence Veiller was
appointed Secretary, and at a later date Mr. Edward B.
Whitney was appointed counsel and Mr. Winthrop E.
Dwight, Associate Counsel. At an early date members
of the Commission personally visited different types of
tenement houses, both in this city and in Buffalo, so as
to acquaint themselves with the evils sought to be
remedied.

The Commission at once familiarized itself with the
work done by previous Commissions, and to this end had
prepared a history of the entire movement for tenement
house reform from 1834 until the present time,) It was
also important for the Commission to know precisely what
laws had been enacted at different times in regard to this
subject, and what changes had taken place in these laws.
Accordingly, a history of all tenement house legislation in
this State from 1852 to the present time was prepared,
showing the development of tenement house regulation,
including all the changes that had taken place within that
period either by State law or Municipal ordinance. The
Commission also had collected the laws of all the leading
American cities bearing upon this subject, and had pre-
pared a special report on housing conditions in twenty-
seven of the largest cities, as well as a comparative study
of the different tenement house regulations in each of
them. It has also had prepared a similar report on hous-
ing conditions and tenement house regulations in leading
European cities. Allof these matters have been embodied
85

in special reports forming part of the report of the Com-
mission.

Early in its work the Commission conferred with mem-
bers of previous Tenement House Commissions, and with
others who had given special attention to this subject.

On May 14th, 1900, the following sub-committees were
appointed: Ist. On Tenement House Construction—I. N.
Phelps Stokes, Chairman, and Messrs. Almirall, Bonner,
Eidlitz, Fowler, Tierney and Brown. 2d. On Moral
and Social Influence of Tenement House Life—James B.
Reynolds, Chairman, and Messrs. Goddard, Almirall and
Fowler. 3d. On Tenement House Labor—James B.
Reynolds, Chairman, and Messrs. Goddard, O’Brien and
Stokes. 4th. On Housing Conditions in Buffalo—Messrs.
William A. Douglas and Williams Lansing. 5th. Execu-
tive Committee—The Chairman and Vice-Chairman, also
Messrs. Bonner, Reynolds, Tierney, White and Stokes.

At an early date the Commission sought and obtained
from the different city officials charged with the enforce-
ment of the tenement house laws, a frank expression of
their views upon this important subject, and on June 20th
a conference was had with the heads of these departments.
There were present at this conference Messrs. Thomas J.
Brady, John Guilfoyle and Daniel Campbell, Commission-
ers of Buildings for the Boroughs of Manhattan and the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond respectively;
also, Dr. Charles F. Roberts, Sanitary Superintendent of
the Department of Health, Fire Chief Edward F. Croker
and Mr. Augustus Docharty, Secretary of the Fire De-
partment. |

The Commission came to the conclusion at an early
period that it was out of the question to investigate all the
tenement houses in the city, as there were over 82,000 of
such buildings. It was deemed, however, very desirable
to ascertain to what extent tenement house evils were due
to defeet-ef-ew-and-to.what extent to its non-enforcement.
It was therefore decided to inspect practically-all the new is
tenement houses in course of construction in the cit
Such an inspection was made and the results of this in-
86

spection have been embodied in a special report appended
to the report of the Commission; 1,046 buildings were thus
inspected.

In regard to the existing tenement houses, the evils
were so generally well known that it was not deemed ad-
visable or necessary to enter into a very detailed examina-

{tion of these buildings. Accordingly, therefore, the Com-
mission decided that with the means and time at their
disposal it would be wise to confine such an investigation
toa few typical blocks in different quarters of the city,
and to ascertain whether the laws in reference to existing
buildings were being enforced in the more important par-
ticulars. Eight blocks, comprising 327, buildings, located in
distincti vely tenement districts, and in different quarters of
the city, were selected. In selecting these blocks, attention
was given to the fact that they contained nearly all the
different types of tenement houses erected at different
times in this city. Similar investigations of 155 typical
tenement houses were made in different parts of Brooklyn,
Queens and Richmond.

It was also decided to have a special examination
made of the rear tenement houses, especially the so-
called “‘back to back” rear tenements. These buildings
had been given special attention by the Committee of
1894, and had been severely condemned. Asa result of this
condemnation, the Board of Health, in 1896, condemned
or had permanently vacated about a hundred of such
buildings. The Commission therefore decided to ascertain
whether there were any more buildings of this kind in
the city, and with this end in view, all such buildings
were examined; 488 inspections of such houses were
made, involving 644 tenement houses. The results of this
examination have been embodied in a special paper appen-
ded to this report.

It was also deemed desirable to have an inspection made
of the tenement houses in the boroughs of Manhattan and
Brooklyn, and also in Queens and Richmond, in regard to
the question of fire escapes, so as to determine whether
87

such buildings were properly equipped and whether the
fire escapes were badly encumbered or not.

In Manhattan the entire Seventeenth Ward was ex-
amined, and a portion of the Seventeenth Ward in Brook-
lyn was similarly examined, as well as parts of Queens
and Richmond. In all, 1,726 houses were thus inspected.
The results of these examinations have been presented in
the form of a special report.

A sanitary inspection of typical tenement houses in
the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, as well as
Brooklyn, was also made, and these results have been set
forth in a special paper. Over 100 actual inspections of
tenement houses were thus made, affecting 337 buildings.

In order to determine how tenement houses should be
constructed in regard to safety from fire, it became neces-
sary to ascertain how fires ordinarily spread through
tenement houses, and also to know a number of other
facts having . bearing upon this subject. To determine
these facts it was found necessary to examine over 60,000
records of the Fire Department; the results of this ex-
amination have been set forth in a special paper on tene-
ment house fires.

The Commission has also had tabulated very complete
and full statistics in reference to the 42,700 tenement
houses in the Borough of Manhattan, which has involved
the counting and tabulation of 427,0(:0 records.

The Commission also, in addition to its investigation of
tenement house fires, has caused an investigation to be
made to ascertain the number of wooden air-shafts in the
tenement houses in the city. This investigation has
affected about 2,600 tenement houses.

Early in Junea printed list of forty-seven different ques-
tions was prepared by the Commission. These questions
dealt with practically all of the more important points of*
tenement house construction in regard to which change
in the law might be desirable.

About 1,600 circulars were sent out to every person
known to have any special interest in the subject of
tenement house reform, and also to architects, builders,
88

owners of tenements, and especially to the owners of every
tenement house for which plans had been filed in the
Department of Buildings since January 1, 1900; also to
real estate agents, insurance agents, physicians, dwellers
in tenements, settlement workers living in tenement dis-
tricts, charitable societies, as well as to the different labor
organizations. Accompanying these circulars was a letter
requesting an expression of opinion, not only upon the
special points involved in the list of questions, but also
requesting general recommendations to the Commission.
A copy of this letter and circular is appended to this report.
This circular was made public in the press, and was given
widespread attention throughout the country. Over a
hundred different persons sent written replies, involving
over 4,700 definite answers. The suggestions made in
this manner to the Commission were of great value in
helping them to determine what was the public sentiment
in regard to the different questions involved, and also were
of great assistance in enabling them to make definite
recommendations. All these suggestions have been care-
fully considered.

Foremost among these was a suggestion made at the
very beginning of the Commission’s work by Mr. R. Ful-
ton Cutting, in reference to encouraging the building of
better tenements by exempting from taxation buildings
properly constructed. Mr. Cutting’s suggestion is con-
tained in his letter, a copy of which is appended to this
report.

A suggestion along very similar lines was also made to
the Commission by Dr. E. R. L. Gould, the President of
the City and Suburban Homes Company, in his testimony
to the effect that the present tax laws unjustly discrim-
inated against corporations whose capital was invested in
improved tenements, taxes being levied both on the real
estate of the corporation as well as on its capital stock,
while individuals owning tenement houses were taxed only
on their real estate.

The attention of the Commission has been called to the
apparent injustice of the present charges for marshals’
89

fees in connection with the eviction of tenants for non-
payment of rent and other causes. A letter appended to
to this report sets forth this question fully.

Among other suggestions made to the Commission were
the following:

That the making or finishing of clothes, artificial
flowers, or similar forms of labor in tenement houses be
prohibited.

That some scheme be devised to drive the factories out
of New York City, and thus remove a very large part of
the tenement population, who probably would follow
their place of employment.

That in all new tenement houses, it should be compul-
sory to carry up the walls above the roof, or provide
fences, so as to provide roof play grounds and prevent the
children from falling into the street.

Another proposition made from similar motives was
that all back yard fences in tenement districts be taken
down and removed, and the spaces be thrown together
into single large areas to be utilized as play grounds.

r A tenant living in a district where there are many
\stables, urged that stables should not be allowed in a
block where two-thirds of the buildings are tenement
houses.

Representatives of the Master Plumbers’ Association
urged upon the Commission the passage of a law prohibit-
ing janitors in tenement houses from making repairs to
the plumbing work, and also urged the passage of a law
requiring an annual test of the plumbing in all tenement
houses.

Another recommendation was to prohibit absolutely the

sits of clothes in air-shafts. Other persons wished
the Tenement House Commission to recommend that no
inside stairways should be permitted in tenement houses;
that all tenement houses should be provided with window
guards so as to prevent accidents from persons falling out
of windows; that.in new tenement houses over four
--stories_in height. elevators should be required; that the ~
roofs of tenement houses should be arranged for baths
90

and for wash rooms; that a law should be passed forbid-
ding as many as four families on a floor on a 25-foot lot;
that the erection of a tenement house on a 25-foot lot should
be absolutely prohibited; that a greater percentage of the
lot should be permitted to be occupied where the building
is on a wider lot than 25 feet; that it should be compulsory
to furnish hot water in all new tenement houses; that no
liquor store should be allowed in a tenement house; that
ash chutes should be provided in all new tenement houses;
that the windows in the walls of tenement buildings
should not be placed: opposite each other, but that they
should be ‘‘ staggered,” so that a person in one room could
not look into another room directly opposite. The Com-
mission was also urged to recommend a law requiring the
licensing of all builders, also the licensing of architects.
Another recommendation was that all future tenement
houses should be fireproof throughout; another that all
partitions in tenement houses should be solid and fire-
proof; that there should be a separate seat provided for
children in water-closets; that basement dwellings in tene-
ment houses should be absolutely prohibited; that wooden
furring should not be permitted to be used in lining walls,
but that all walls should be lined with hollow brick; that
it be compulsory to provide a dumbwaiter in all new tene-
ment houses. In regard to bathing facilities, there was a
great variety of recommendations, varying from requiring
a private bath for each family to requiring a series of com-
mon baths in the basement. Other suggestions along
these lines were: Making it compulsory to have a movable
partition between the washtubs; that the washtubs should
be made at least four feet long, so that they could be used
as a bath, and that no water tax should be placed upon
such tubs or tubs with movable partitions. Another per-.
son urged that it should be compulsory for the landlord to
furnish hot water for bathing purposes. Other recom-
mendations of equally wide range and of varying degrees
of usefulness have been made to the Commission.

The Commission has held eight public hearings, the tes-
timony taken at these hearings amounting to about 1,000
91

pages. One of these hearings was held in Buffalo and the
other seven in New York.

The hearing in Buffalo was held at the Hotel Iroquois on
October 27th, at 11 a. M., and the following persons were
present, most of whom testified before the Commission:
Dr. D. J. Constantine, the Tenement House Inspector of
the Board of Health; Dr. Ernest Wende, president of the
Board of Health; Captain John W. Ryan, of the eighth
precinct of police; Fire Chief McConnell, Miss Mary E.
Remington, manager of an improved tenement house; Mrs.
Bernard Bartow and Miss Viola Bryant, of the State
Charities Aid Association; Mr. T. Guilford Smith, presi-
dent of the Buffalo Charity Organization Society; Mr.
Frederick Almy, secretary, and Miss Marion I. Moore,
assistant secretary of the Buffalo Charity Organization
Society; Mrs. James B. Parke, of the Women’s Union;
Miss Emily S. Holmes, head-worker of the Westminster
House Settlement; Inspectors Edward G. Burns and Adam
Meister, of the Buffalo Charity Organization Society; Miss
Louise Montgomery and Miss Florence L. Pease, of Wel-
come Hall Settlement; Dr. John H. Pryor, Mr. Martin F.
Murphy, president of the State Federation of Labor; Mr.
V. Altman, business agent of the Garment Workers, and
a number of other representatives of labor organizations,
and many other citizens.

‘Many of those testifying urged that a number of old
buildings in the lower part of the city should be con-
demned as not fit for habitation, and that others should be

provided with adequate fire escapes. Several witnesses —

testified thatin the Polish section of the city there was

overcrowding in certain cases, but that, as a rule, the

“great-majority of the Poles lived in small one-story and
one and one-half story wooden cottages containing but
one family, and that, in many cases, the houses were
owned by the occupants.

A number of witnesses expressed the opinion that a
tenement house system was not necessary in the City of
Buffalo, and that such a system should be discouraged;

that it was essential to a right state of civilization that
92

people should live in separate houses and have their own
homes, and that the great majority of people in Buffalo
did so.

The first hearing in New York was held on November
16th, and was devoted entirely to the subject of the tene-
ments and tuberculosis, and upon that occasion the fol-
lowing witnesses testified: Dr. John H. Pryor, of Buffalo;
Dr. Herman M. Biggs, of the Department of Health; Dr.
Alfred Meyer, Mr. Lee K. Frankel, Manager of the United
Hebrew Charities; Dr. S. A. Knopf, Dr. Alfred R. Guerard,
and Mr. Frank Tucker, General Manager of the Associa-
tion for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

The second hearing was held on November 24th, and
was devoted to the subject of the General Evils of the
Tenement House System. Among the witnesses who
testified before the Commission at this hearing were the
following: Dr. Elgin R. L. Gould, President of the City
and Suburban Homes Company; Mr. Jacob A. Riis, author
of ‘“‘ How the Other Half Lives” and other books on this
subject; Miss Lillian D. Wald, head-worker of the Nurses’
Settlement; Mr. Ernest. Flagg, Architect, and author of
‘“‘The Tenement House Evil and Its Cure”; Mrs. V. G,
Simkhowitch, head-worker of Friendly Aid Settlement;
Rev. W. T, Elsing, of. the De Witt Memorial Church; Miss
M. M. Brown, of the Nurses’ Settlement; Miss Elizabeth
§. Williams, head-worker of the College Settlement; Dr.
L. Neuhof, physician of the Good Samaritan Dispensary.

At the third hearing, held on November 26th, the sub-
ject of the General Evils of the Tenement House System
was continued. Among the persons who testified were
the following: Miss Agnes Daley, formerly of the College
Settlement and a resident in a new tenement house for
nine months; Mr. Henry Moscowitz, a tenement house
dweller; Rev. Gaylord S. White, pastor of a church in one
of the tenement house districts in Brooklyn; Mr. Frank
Tucker, of the Association for Improving the Condition
of the Poor; Mrs. J. A. Miller, a tenement house dweller
for twelve years; Mr. A. A. Hill, head worker of a settle-
ment on the west side of the city; Mr. Edward T. Devine,
93

General Secretary of the Charity Organization Society;
Mrs. Florence Kelly, Secretary of the National Consumers’.
League, and formerly chief factory inspector of the State
of Illinois.

The fourth public hearing of the Tenement House Com-
mission was held on November 29th, and was devoted to
the special subject of Vice in Tenement Districts. Among
the persons who testified at this hearing were the follow-
ing: Mr. Emil Fuchs, a tenement-house dweller; Dr.
Pierre Siegelstein, a physician living in tenement-house
districts; Rev. Robert L. Paddock, of the Pro-Cathedral
Church; Miss Ruth Price, of the Rescue Army; Professor
Felix Adler, Mrs. Charles R. Lowell, Mr. Henry Mosco-
witz, a tenement house dweller; Mr. Orrin B. Booth, of
the Rescue Army; Rev. Francis J. Clay Moran, of the
Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests
of Labor; Mr. George W. Morgan, Secretary of the Com-
mittee on Public Morality. , \

The fifth ‘public hearing of the Tenement House Com-
mission was held on November 30th, and was devoted to
the special subject of Tenement House Labor. Among
the persons who testified were the following: Mrs. Fred-
erick Nathan, President of the Consumers’ League; Mr.
Henry White, Secretary of the National Garment
Workers of America; Rev. Francis J. Moran, Mr. Meyer
Schoenfeld, formerly of the Garment Makers’ Union; Mr.
H. Grossman, Business Agent of the Cloak Makers’ Union;
Mr. Moses de Costa, of the Cigar Makers’ Union; Mr.
Daniel 8S. Jacobs, of the Cigar Makers’.

The sixth public hearing of the Tenement House Commis-
sion was held on December 10th. The hearing was devoted
to the subject of the enforcement of the law In Regard to
the Construction of New Buildings. Among the persons
who testified were the following: Mr. Thomas J. Brady,
Commissioner of Buildings for Manhattan and the Bronx;
Mr. John A. Dooner, Superintendent of Buildings for the
Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx; Mr. John Guil-
foyle, Commissioner of Buildings for the Borough of
94

Brooklyn; Mr. Daniel Campbell, Commissioner of Build-
ings for the Boroughs of Queens and Richmond.

The seventh public hearing of the Tenement House
Commission was held on December 11th, and the hearing
was devoted to the question of the Enforcement of the
Tenement House Laws by the Building and Health De-
partments. Among the witnesses who testified were the
following: Mr. Michael C. Murphy, President of the
Department of Health; Mr. Eugene Otterbourg, Assist-
ant Corporation Counsel, assigned to the Department of
Buildings; Dr. Charles F. Roberts, Sanitary Superin-
tendent of the Department of Health; Dr. Frederick H.
Dillingham, Assistant Sanitary Superintendent of the
Department of Health for the Borough of Manhattan; Dr.
Robert A. Black, Assistant Sanitary Superintendent for
the Department of Health for the Borough of Brooklyn;
Dr. J. L. Feeny, Assistant Sanitary Superintendent of the
Department of Health for the Borough of Richmond.

The Commission has at all times sought to place itself
in an attitude of co-operation with all Societies and indi-
viduals and has had frequent conferences with different
bodies as to matters affected by the tenement house
question. é

The Commission is under great obligation to the follow-
ing named persons, who have conducted special examina-
tions at its request, viz.: Dr. Hermann M. Biggs, Mr. H.
L. Cargill, Miss Kate Holloday Claghorn, Dr. Elgin R. L.
Gould, Dr. Arthur B. Guerard, Mr. John Todd, Mr. Frank
Tucker, and Mr. Albert L. Webster.

The Commission also wishes to express its indebtedness
to those employees who, by their faithful, careful, effi-
cient and conscientious work, have helped to make the
labors of the Commission successful, and to this end de-
sires to mention for special commendation the following
persons: Miss M. L. Acton, Mr. William J. Crawford, Mr.
George E. Jennings, Jr., Miss L. J. Moulton, Mr. Charles
Mohr and Mr. W. A. Robertson.
95

A PROPOSED CODE OF TENEMENT HOUSE
LAWS.

In preparing this Code the Commission has sought to
arrange and classify it in such way as to make it perfectly
clear to every person who may have occasion to use it,
and to this end has divided the Code into chapters, group-
ing the different parts in such divisions as fire provisions,
light and ventilation provisions, sanitary provisions,
remedies, &c. Under each chapter it has been sought to
separate the provisions relating entirely to new buildings
from those which relate to existing tenement houses. Fol-
lowing each section in which important changes have
been made will be found a statement calling attention to
these changes and pointing out some of the chief reasons
for them.

AN ACT in relation to Tenement Houses in the City of
New York.

The People of the State of New York represented in
Senate and Assembly do enact as follows :

CHAPTER 1.
DEFINITIONS.

Section 1. Application. All the provisions of this act
have reference only to the city of New York.

SEcTION 2. Definitions. Certain words used in this act
are defined for the purposes thereof as follows:

(1.) A tenement house is any house or building, or por-
tion thereof, which is rented, leased, let or hired out, to
be occupied, or is occupied as the home or residence of
three families or more living independently of each other,
and doing their cooking upon the premises, or by more
than two families upon any floor, so living and cooking,
but having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards,
water-closets or privies, or some of them.
96

This is the definition in the Charter. This is also in
principle, the definition in Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis,
Boston, Baltimore, Buffalo, San Francisco, Milwaukee,
Washington, Minneapolis, Providence, Kansas City, Mo.,
Denver and Syracuse, with slight differences in some of
the cities as to the number of families, which varies
between three and five.

(2.) A yard is an open unoccupied space on the same lot
with a tenement house, between the extreme rear line of
the house and the rear line of the lot.

(3.) A court is an open unoccupied space, other than a
yard, on the same lot with a tenement house. A court
not extending to the street or yard is an inner court. A
court extending to the street or yard is an outer court.
If it extends to the street it is a street court. If it extends
to the yard it is a yard court.

(4.) A shaft includes exterior and interior shafts,
whether for air, light, elevator, dumbwaiter, or any other
purpose. A vent shaft is one used solely to ventilate or
light a water closet compartment or bathroom.

(5.) A public hall is a hall, corridor or passageway not
within an apartment. .

(6.) A stair hall includes the stairs, stair landings and
those portions of the public halls through which it is neces-
sary to pass in going between the entrance floor and the
roof.

(7.) A basement is a story partly but not more than
one-half below the level of the curb.

(8.) A cellar is a story more than one-half below the
level of the curb.

(9.) A fireproof tenement house is one the walls of
which are constructed of brick, stone, iron or other hard
incombustible material, and in which there are no wood
beams or lintels, and in which the floors, roofs, stair halls
and public halls are built entirely of brick, stone, iron or
other hard incombustible material, and in which no
woodwork or other inflammable material is used in any
of the partitions, furrings or ceilings. But this definition
97

shall not be construed as prohibiting, elsewhere than in
the stair halls or entrance halls, the use of wooden floor-
ing on top of the fireproof floors or the use of wooden
sleepers, nor as prohibiting wooden handrails and hard-
wood treads such as described in Section 18 of this act.

(10.) The word shall is always mandatory, and not
directory, and denotes that the house shall be maintained
in all respects according to the mandate, as long as it con-
tinues to be a tenenient house.

SECTION 3. Butldings converted or altered. A building
not erected for use as a tenement house, if hereafter con-
verted or altered to such use, shall thereupon become sub-
ject to all the provisions of this act affecting tenement
houses hereafter erected. ‘

Section 4. Buildings in process of erection. A tene-
ment house not now completed, but upon which work has
been actually commenced, after approval of the plans
therefor by the Department of Buildings, shall be subject
only to the provisions of this act affecting now existing
tenement houses.

SecTion 5. Corner lots. When a lot is situated at a
corner of two streets, if it has more frontage upon one
street than the other, the lesser frontage shall be deemed
the width and the greater frontage the depth of the lot
within the meaning of this act; and when the width is
greater than twenty-five feet, the excess over said twenty-
five feet shall not be deemed part of a corner lot, but shall
be subject to the provisions of this act in relation to lots
other than corner lots.

CHAPTER II.
PROTECTION FROM FIRE.

TitLE 1. Provisions applicable only to tenement houses
hereafter erected.

Szc. 11. Fireproof tenements, when required. Every
tenement house hereafter erected exceeding fifty-seven
98

feet, or exceeding five stories or part of stories, in height
above the curb level, shall be a fireproof tenement house,
nor shall any tenement house be altered so as to exceed
such height without being made a fireproof tenement house;
provided, that this section shall not apply to a building of
a height not exceeding sixty-seven feet, and not exceed-
ing six stories or parts of stories in height above the curb
level if such building shall have a frontage exceeding forty
feet. A cellar is not a story within the meaning of this
section.

The law in 1885 limited the height of all tenement
houses, whether fireproof or non-fireproof, to 70 feet on
streets of 60 feet or less in width and to 80 feet on broader
streets, and this remained the law until 1897. The law in
Philadelphia requires all tenement houses over four stories
high to be fireproof; and the Boston law limits the height
of non-fireproof tenements to 65 feet; in Washington the
height of such buildings must not exceed five stories.

SECTION 12. Fire escapes. Every non-fireproof tene-
ment house hereafter erected, unless provided with fige-
proof outside stairways directly accessible to each apart-
ment, shall have fire escapes located and constructed as in
this section required.

(1.) The fire escapes shall be located both on the front
and rear of the building at each story above the ground
floor, and where there is an apartment not containing
any room fronting on either the street or yard, an addi-
tional fire escape shall be provided for such apartment.
Where, however, there are not more than four rooms in
a line comprising part of one apartment, and the apart-
ment extends from the street to the yard, the rear fire
escape may be omitted. Fire escapes may project into the
public highway to a distance not greater than four feet
beyond the building line.

(2.) The fire escapes shall consist of outside open iron
balconies and stairways.. The stairways shall be placed
99

at an angle of not more than sixty degrees, with steps not
less than six inches in width and twenty inches in length,
and with a rise of not more than nine inches. The bal-
cony on the top floor, except in the case of a front fire
escape, shall be provided with a goose-neck ladder leading
from said balcony to and above the roof.

(3.) Balconies. The balconies shall not be less than
three feet in width, taking in at least one window of each
apartment at each story above the ground floor. They
shall be below and not more than one foot below the win-
dow sills and extend in front of and not less than nine
inches beyond each window. There shall be a landing
not less than twenty-four inches square at the head and
foot of each stairway. The stairway opening on each
platform shall be of a size sufficient to provide clear head-
way.

(4.) Floors of balconies. The floors of balconies shall be
of wrought iron or steel slats not less than one and a half
inches by three-eighths of an inch, placed not more than one
and one-quarter inches apart, and well secured and riveted
to iron battens one and a half inches by three-eighths of
an inch, not over three feet apart and riveted at the inter-
section The openings for stairways in all buildings shall
not be less than twenty-one inches wide and thirty-six
inches long, and such openings shall have no covers of
any kind. The platforms or balconies shall be constructed
and erected to safely sustain in all their parts a safe load
at a ratio of four to one, of not less than eighty pounds
per square foot of surface.

(5.) Razlings. The outside top rail shall extend around
the entire length of the platform and in all cases shali go
through the wall at each end, and be properly secured by
nuts and four-inch square washers at least three-eighths of
an inch thick, and no top rail shall be connected at angles
by cast iron. The top rail of balconies shall be one and
three-quarter inches by one-half inch of wrought iron, or
one and a half inch angle iron one-quarter inch thick.
The bottom rails shall be one and one-half inches by three-
eighths of an inch wrought iron, or one and a half inch
100

angle iron, one-quarter inch thick, well leaded into the
wall. The standards or filling-in bars shall not be less
than one-half inch round or square wrought iron, well
riveted to the top and bottom rails and platform frame.
Such standards or filling-in bars shall be securely braced
by outside brackets at suitable intervals, and shall be
placed not more than six inches from centres; the height
of railings shall in no case be less than two feet nine
inches,

(6.) Stairways. The stairways shall be constructed and
erected to fully sustain in all their parts a safe load at a
ratio of four to one of not less than one hundred pounds
per step, with the exception of the tread which must
safely sustain at said ratio a load of two hundred pounds.
The treads shall be flat open treads not less than six
inches wide and with a rise of not more than nine inches.
The stairs shall be not less than twenty inches wide.
The strings shall be not less than three inch channels of
iron or steel, or other shape equally strong, and shall rest
upon and be fastened to a bracket, which shall be fastened
through the wall as hereinafter provided. The strings
shall be securely fastened to the balcony at the top, and
the steps in all cases shall be double-riveted or bolted to
the strings. The stairs shall have three-quarter inch
handrails of wrought iron, well braced.

(7) Brackets. The brackets shall not be less than
one-half inch by one and three-quarters inches wrought
iron placed edge-wise, or one and three-quarters inch
angle iron, one-quarter inch thick, well braced; they
shall not be more than four feet apart, and shall be
braced by means of not less than three-quarters of an
inch square wrought iron, and shall extend two-thirds
of the width of the respective balconies or brackets.
The brackets shall go through the wall and be turned
down three inches, or be properly secured by nuts and
four inch square washers at least three-eighths of an
inch thick. On new buildings the brackets shall be set
as the walls are being built. When brackets are put on
tenement houses already erected the part going through
101

the wall shall not be less than one inch in diameter with
screw nuts and washers not less than five inches square
and one-half an inch thick.

(8) Drop-ladders. No drop-ladder shall be required from
the lower balcony when the floor of such balcony is not
more than fourteen feet above the sidewalk or ground.

(9) Painting. All the parts of such fire escapes shall
receive not less than two coats of paint, one in the shop
and one after erection. All fire escape balconies shall con-
tain a plate firmly fastened to the standards or filling-in
bars near the top railing in front of each window, such
plate to contain in plain, large, prominent, raised letters,
each letter to be not less than one-half an inch in length,
the following words: “ Any one placing any encumbrance
on this balcony will be fined $10.”

The present law leaves the location and manner of con-
struction of all fire escapes entirely in the discretion of the
Commissioner of Buildings. The Commissioner has
adopted printed regulations on this subject prescribing the
method of construction. So important a subject as this
should be embodied in the statute, and should not be subject
to change at the pleasure of any official. In Chicago, Phila-
delphia, San Francisco, Jersey City, Minneapolis, Roch-
ester, and in other cities, these details are specified in the
statute. The above provisions of Section 12 are the pres-
ent regulations of the Department of Buildings, with such
changes as have been deemed necessary. Where the pres-
ent regulations have been departed from the provisions of
the Philadelphia law have generally been followed. It will
be noted that these fire escape provisions apply only to non-
fireproof buildings. Under the provisions of this section,
vertical ladders will no longer be permitted upon new fire
escapes, but iron stairs, with a hand-rail, such as are now
being placed on many of the more substantial buildings
must be provided. The present regulations of the Building
Department require this, but the requirement is frequently
‘‘waived.” The Special Report on this subject shows that
vertical ladders are almost never used by the tenants, and
that in nearly every case the tenants have to be rescued

from the fire escapes by firemen and policemen. It is ob-
vious that women, children and aged people cannot with-
102

out risk use such ladders. At the request of the Fire
Department a provision has been added that the top fire
escape shall have a ladder leading to the roof, so as to
assist the firemen in their work. In regard to the location
of fire escapes, the general practice at present is to
place the balconies on the rear of the building only, and
not on the front. The value of a fire escape is not only as
a place of refuge for the tenants, but also as a means of
enabling the firemen to quickly reach the fire within the
building, and to rescue any persons in danger. It is ap-
parent, therefore, that such escapes should be located on
the front of the building as well as on the rear.
Moreover, it is the natural impulse of persons
in a fire to rash to the front windows where
the street is located, where the fire engines
are to be found, and where help may be expected. Fur-
thermore, the kitchens of flats and apartments are gener-
ally at the rear and it is in the kitchens that most of the
fires originate, so that escape by the rear fire escapes is
generally cut off. The stairs and halls of the buildings
are seldom of much value asa means of escape because
they immediately become filled with smoke. From every
consideration therefore, it seems desirable that the fire
escapes shall be on the front of the building, when it is
not fireproof. ‘The Commission strongly condemns the
present practice of placing gratings without ladders or
stairs, in the air-shafts between the windows of adjoining
houses, to serve in lieu of fire escapes on the front of the
buildings. The special report on tenement house fires
shows that over one-fourth of the fires spead through the
airshafts. This practice seems to have arisen only within
the last two or three years, It saves only a few dollars to
the builder. The Commission has recommended that the
present drop-ladder now required at the first balcony, be
no longer required, for the reason that these ladders are
seldom used; because of their weight and size, they are
usually hung to the balcony above and in case of fire are
more of a hindrance than a help.

SECTION 13. Bulkheads. Every tenement house here-
after erected shall have in the roof a fireproof bulkhead
with a fireproof door to the same, and shall have fireproof
stairs with a guide or handrail leading to the roof, and
such stairs shall be kept free from encumbrance at all
103

times. No bulkhead door shall at any time be locked

with a key, but it may be fastened on the inside by mov-
able bolts or hooks.

This has practically been the law in Brooklyn since 1852
and in Manhattan since 1862.

SEcTION 14. Stairs and public halls. Every tenement
house hereafter erected shall have at least one flight of
stairs extending from the entrance floor to the roof, and
the stairs and public halls therein shall each be at least
three feet wide in the clear.

The present law does not specify a minimum width for
public halls and stairs. It has become necessary, however,
to prescribe such a width, as the present halls are so nar-
row that it is difficult for people to pass each other in
them. The narrow halls also greatly increase the danger
in case of fire.

In Chicago the law requires that the halls shall be at
least three feet wide for every 2,000 square feet of ground
covered by the building, and shall increase six inches in
width for every 500 additional square feet. In Philadel-
phia the halls must be at least three feet wide in houses con-
taining less than fifteen rooms; where there are more than
fifteen rooms, they must be three feet six inches wide, and
in houses where there are over twenty-five rooms the halls
must be four feet wide. There are similar requirements
in the laws of other cities.

SEoTIon 15. Stairways in non-fireproof buildings.
Every non-fireproof tenement, house hereafter erected con-
taining over eighty rooms shall also have an additional
flight of stairs for every additional eighty rooms or frac-
tion thereof; if said house contains not more than one
hundred and twenty rooms, in lieu of an additional stair-
way, the stairs and public halls throughout the entire
104

building may each be at least one-half wider than is speci-
fied in sections fourteen and twenty of this act.

The Building Code in relation to certain classes of build-
ings provides that there shall be an increased number of
stairs proportionate to the width of the building. It is
apparent that this method of determining the number of
stairs is not so logical as making it depend on the number
of persons using the stairs, which is best measured by the
number of rooms.

Section 16. Stairways in fireproof buildings. Every
fireproof tenement house hereafter erected containing over
one hundred and twenty rooms shall also have an addi-
tional flight of stairs for every additional one hundred and
twenty rooms or fraction thereof; but if said house con-
tains not more than one hundred and eighty rooms, in lieu
of an additional stairway the stairs and public halls
throughout the entire building may each be at least one-
half wider than is specified in Sections fourteen and twenty
of this act; and a power passenger elevator, enclosed in a
separate shaft from the stairs, and distant not less than
thirty-five feet from the main flight of stairs, shall be
deemed the equivalent of an additional flight.

In fireproof buildings, much greater latitude may
safely be given than in non-fireproof buildings, and where
there are elevators, still further concessions may be
granted as the stairs in such cases are seldom used.

\

SECTION 17. Stairways, continued. Each flight of stairs
mentioned in the last three sections shall have an entrance
on the entrance floor from the street or street court, or
from an inner court which connects directly with the
street. All stairs shall be constructed with a rise of not
more than seven and one-half inches and with treads not
105

less than ten inches wide and not less than three feet long
in the clear. Where winders are used, all treads at a
point eighteen inches from the strings on the well side
shall be at least ten inches wide.

The present law does not specify what the amount of
rise or the width of treads shall be. It seems desirable
to specify a maximum height of stair and a minimum
width, not only on account of the danger of steep stairs,
but for other reasons as well. The testimony taken be-
fore the Commission disclosed the fact that the steep stairs
in the tenement houses were very injurious to women.
The present law prohibits ‘‘ winders ”; it appears however,
that they are often used. Under the conditions here pre-
scribed, it would seem that they might safely be allowed.

Section 18. Stair halls. The stair halls in all non-fire-
proof as well as fireproof tenement houses hereafter
erected shall be constructed of fireproof material through-
out, except as in this section specified. The risers, strings
and banisters shall be of metal or stone. The treads shall
be of metal, slate or stone, or of hard wood not less than
two inches thick. Wooden hand rails to stairs will be
permitted if constructed of hard wood. The floors of all
stair halls shall be constructed of iron or steel beams and
fireproof filling and no wooden flooring or sleepers shall
be permitted. All windows on stair halls opening on
courts shall be of good quality wire-glass in frames of
fireproof material.

The present law requires that in tenement houses over
three stories in height above the cellar, the entrance hall
and the entire stair well and stairs shall be built of slow-
burning construction or fireproof material. Prior to the
Charter, the law read, ‘‘ of such slow-burning or fireproof
construction, as the Superintendent of Buildings shall
decide.” The Charter, however, took away this discre-
tionary power. Notwithstanding this fact, the Commis-
106 :
sion finds that the Department of Buildings permits under
this section of the law the stairs and public halls to be
constructed entirely of wood. In the Borough of Man-
hattan, the Commission found 113 new tenement houses,
or 97 per cent. of all, being thus constructed with wooden
stairs, and in &2 cases these stairs were enclosed with
ordinary wooden stud partitions instead of fireproof ma-
terial.

The Commission therefore has framed a provision, set-
ting forth clearly how such halls and stairs shall be con-
eeeae te in accordance with the manifest intent of present
aw.

SEcTION 19. Stair halls, continued. In every non-fire-
proof tenement house hereafter erected all stair halls shall
be enclosed on all sides with brick walls. The doors open-
ing from stair halls shall be fireproof and self-closing, and
if provided with glass such glass shall be good quality
wire-glass. There shall be no transom or movable sash
opening from a stair hall to any other part of the house.
Except on the entrance floor, each stair hall shall be shut
off from all non-fireproof portions of the public halls and
from all other non-fireproof parts of the building, on each
story, by self-closing fireproof doors, and if glass is used in
such doors it shall be of good quality wire-glass. .

In framing all these provisions regarding halls and stairs,
the Commission has proceeded upon the theory that in
tenement houses which are not fireproof, the stairs and
all those portions of the building through which the ten-
ants must pass in escaping from the building should be
absolutely fireproof, and that such portions should be
completely shut off from all non-fireproof parts of the
building. The results of the two fires instanced in the
Special Report on Tenement House Fires, indicate clearly
that this is essential. The present law requires this only
for tenement houses over five stories in height, and where
also there are as many as four families on a floor. We
believe that it should apply to all tenement houses here-
after erected, whatever their height. .

This was required by the law of this State as early as
1867, and it would seem that the law now, 34 years later,
might at least give equal protection to human life.
107

SECTION 20. Entrance halls. Every entrance hall in a
tenement house hereafter erected shall be at least three
feet six inches wide in the clear, from the entrance up to
and including the stair enclosure, and beyond this point at
least three feet wide in the clear. It shall be enclosed
with brick walls, and shall comply with all the conditions
of the preceding sections of this act as to the construction
of stair halls. If such entrance hall is the only entrance
to more than one flight of stairs, said hall shall be in-
creased one foot in width in every part for each such
additional flight of stairs. In every such house access
shall be had from the street to the yard, either in a direct
line or through a court.

The present law does not prescribe any minimum width
for such halls; it is apparent, however, that this should
be done. That this hall should be fireproof is required by
the present law. The Commission is of opinion also that
access should be had from street to yard so as to enable
the firemen to have quick access to the rear of the build-
ing, and also to afford the tenants better means of egress
a case of fire, as well as to secure more adequate ventila-

jon,

Section 21. First tier of beams. In all non-fireproof as
well as fireproof tenement houses hereafter erected five
stories or more in height, exclusive of the cellar, the first
floor above the cellar, or, if there be no cellar, above the
lowest story, shall be constructed fireproof with iron or
steel beams and fireproof flooring; and the bottom flanges
and all exposed portions of such iron or steel beams below
the abutments of the floor arches or filling shall be en-
tirely encased with hard-burnt clay or porous terra cotta
or with metal lath properly secured and plastered on the
under side. In all non-fireproof tenement houses hereafter
erected less than five stories in height, where the first
floor above the cellar, or, if there be no cellar, above the
lowest story, is not constructed fireproof with iron or steel
108

beams and fireproof flooring, the cellar ceiling of said ten-
ement house shall be lathed with wire or metal lath, and
plastered thereon with two coats of brown mortar of good
materials.

This is the present law.

SECTION 22. Partitions, Construction of. In all non-
fireproof tenement houses hereafter erected, fore and aft
stud partitions which rest directly over each other shall
run through the wooden floor beams and rest upon the
plate of the partition below, and shail have the studding
filled in solid between the uprights to the depth of the
floor beams with suitable incombustible materials. In
all fireproof tenement houses hereafter erected, all par-
titions shall rest directly upon the fireproof floor construc-
tion, and extend to the fireproof beam filling above.

This is the present law. The Commission would have
liked to have required that all partitions in new: tenemerit
houses should be solid and also fireproof. The advantages
of such a form of construction are very great; it takes
away one of the places where vermin may lodge, and also
greatly reduces the danger from spread of fire. The Com-
mission, however, in view of the additional expense that
this would entail, have not seen their way clear to making
such recommendation at the present time.

SECTION 23. Cellar stairs in non-fireproof buildings.
In non-fireproof tenement houses hereafter erected there
shall be no inside stairs communicating between the cellar
or other lowest story and the floor next above, but such
stairs shall in every case be located outside the building,
and if enclosed shall be constructed entirely. fireproof and
be enclosed in a fireproof enclosure with fireproof self-
closing doors at all openings.
109

As one-quarter of all the fires originate in the cellars,
and most of these at night, it is desirable that the cellars
shall be completely shut off from the other parts of the
building. The present Jaw requires the cellar stairs to be
located to the rear of the stairs leading to the upper
stories, when practicable. This, however, has proved too
indefinite a provision to accomplish the desired result.
The Fire Department has for years urged the adoption of
this provision, and its adoption was also recommended by
the Tenement House Commission of 1894. The Com-
mission believes that this requirement is desirable, as
otherwise there would be a continuous shaft throughout
the building for the spread of fire originating in the cel-
lar. Moreover, they find that this is the present practice
in the great majority of cases, so that it would work no
hardship.

Section 24. Cellar stairs in fireproof buildings. In
every fireproof tenement house hereafter erected the
stairs communicating between the cellar or other lowest
story and the floor next above, if not located underneath
the stairs leading to the upper stories, may be placed in-
side uf the said building; provided, that the portion of the
cellar or other lowest story into which said stairs lead is
entirely shut off by fireproof walls from those portions
thereof which are used for the storage of fuel, or in which
heating appliances, boilers or machinery are located. All
openings in such walls shall be provided with self-closing
fireproof doors.

In fireproof buildings where the portions of the cellar
containing inflammable material are completely shut off
from the other portions of the building, cellar stairs inside
the building, in the opinion of the Commission, may safely
be permitted.

Section 25. Closet under first story stairs. In non-
fireproof tenement houses hereafter erected no civset of
any kind shall be constructed under any staircase leading
110

from the first story, exclusive of the cellar, to the upper
stories, but such space shall be left entirely open and kept
clear and free from encumbrance.

This has been the law of this State since 1892. The
Commission believes, however, that it need not apply to
buildings which are fireproof throughout.

Section 26. Cellar entrance. In every tenement house
hereafter erected there shall be an entrance to the cellar
or other lowest story from the outside of the said building.
In such tenement houses, unless the entire ceiling and
floor above the cellar or other lowest story is constructed
fireproof, all receptacles for fuel or storage in the cellar
or other lowest story shall be constructed entirely of fire-
proof materials.

The object of this requirement is to assist firemen in
fighting cellar fires, not only giving them quick access to
the cellar, but also permitting the fire to be vented.
Where the first floor above the cellar is not constructed
fireproof the Commission is of opinion that all receptacles
for fuel in the cellar should be constructed of fireproof ma-
terial. So many cellar fires start in the woodbins that it
seems essential that this safeguard should be had. ‘The
law in 1867, thirty-four years ago, required this. The
Board of Fire Underwriters have urged that this law be
re-enacted.

Section 27. Fire stops. In tenement houses hereafter
erected, in all walls all the courses of brick from the under
side of the floor beams to the top of the same shall pro-
ject a distance of at least two inches beyond the inside
face of the wall so as to provide an effective fire stop; and
wherever floor beams run parallel to a wall such beams
shall always be kept at least two and one-half inches away
from the inside line of the wall, and the space between the
111

beams and the wall shall be built up solidly with brick-
work from the under side of the floor beams to the top of
the same so as to form an effective fire stop.

The present law in this respect does not entirely meet
the situation, not providing for cases where the beams are
parallel to the wall. This requirement is necessary to pre-
vent fire spreading quickly through the building, through
air spaces, and feeding upon furring strips and other
wooden material.

SECTION 28. Wooden tenement houses. Within the fire
limits of the city of New York no wooden tenement house
shall hereafter be erected, and no wooden building not now
used as a tenement house shall hereafter be altered or con-
verted to such use. Outside of the fire limits, wooden
tenement houses not exceeding two stories in height, ex-
clusive of the cellar, may be erected, but shall not provide
accommodations for, or be occupied by, more than four
families in all, or more than two families on any floor;
and such houses need not comply with the foregoing pro-
visions of this act in reference to protection from fire nor
with the provisions of Sections twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-
one, thirty-two, thirty-six, thirty-seven and thirty-eight
of this act.

Since 1887 the law of this State has prohibited the erec-
tion of wooden buildings to be occupied by more than two
families. This, however, applied only to the old city of
New York before consolidation. The Commission is of
opinion that this requirement should not apply to the out-
lying sections of the Boroughs of Queens, Richmond and
even parts of Brooklyn and the Bronx, and has therefore
recommended that tenement houses outside of the fire
limits may be constructed of wood, provided that they do
not exceed two stories in height, and are not occupied by
more than four families in all, or by more than two fam-
ilies on any floor. In such cases, of course, none of the
provisions of the law in regard to fireproof stairs, &c.,
should apply.
112

TITLE 2. Provisions applicable only to now existing
tenement houses.

SEcTION 29. Fire escapes. Every now existing non-
fireproof tenement house, unless provided with fireproof
outside stairways directly accessible to each apartment,
shall have fire escapes located and constructed as described
in Section twelve of this act. Buta fire escape now erected
upon such house shall be deemed sufficient except as pro-
vided in the next two sections.

SEcTION 30. Fire escapes, continued. In every now ex-
isting non-fireproof tenement house there shall be a sep-
arate fire escape directly accessible to each apartment, ex-
clusive of fire escapes in air shafts and courts; and a party-
wall fire escape balcony on the rear of the building con-
necting with the window of an adjoining building shall
be deemed a sufficient fire escape only when the two build-
ings are completely separated by an unpierced fire wall
throughout their entire height and length. All wooden
floor slats and floors in fire escape balconies shall be re-
placed by proper iron slats or floors. No wooden balcony
or wooden outside stairs shall be deemed part of a lawful
fire escape.

SECTION 31. Fire escapes, continued. Whenever a now
existing non-fireproof tenement house is not provided with
sufficient means of egress in case of fire the Department
of Buildings may order such additional fire escapes or
other means of egress as in its judgment may be neces-
sary.

The views of the Commission in reference to this sub-
ject have been fully set forth under Section 12.

SECTION 32. Scuttles, bulkheads and ladders. Every
now existing tenement house shall have in the roof a bulk-
head or scuttle constructed as in this section required. No
scuttle shall be less in size than two feet by three feet, and
113

all scuttles shall be covered on the outside with metal and
shall be provided with stationary iron ladders or stairs
leading thereto and easily accessible to all tenants of the
building and kept free from encumbrance, and all scuttles
and ladders shall be kept so as to be ready for use at all
times. Every bulkhead shall be fireproof with a fireproof
door to the same and shall have fireproof stairs with a
guide or handrail leading to the roof, and such stairs shall
be kept free from encumbrance at all times. Noscuttleand
no bulkhead door shall at any time be locked with a key,
but either may be fastened on the inside by movable
bolts or hooks.

This has practically been the law since 1852 in Brooklyn,
and since 1862 in Manhattan.

SECTION 33. Stair halls, public halls and entrance halls.
If any now existing tenement house shall be so altered as
to increase the number of rooms therein by twenty per
centum or more, or if such building is increased in height,
the entire stair halls, entrance halls and other public halls
of the whole building shall be made to conform to the
requirements of sections fourteen to twenty, inclusive, of
this act.

It is of course proper that if an existing tenement house
is enlarged or materially altered, it should comply in all
essential particulars with the laws for new tenement
houses. The law, however, should not apply to minor al-
terations, as this might prevent the owner of such a build-
ing from improving it. The Commission has, therefore,
sought to draw the line at the point where the number of
rooms in the building has been materially increased.

SEcTION 34. Tenements damaged by fire. If any now
existing tenement house shall hereafter be damaged by
114

fire or otherwise to an amount greater than one-half of
the value thereof, exclusive of the value of the foundation,
such building shall not be repaired or rebuilt except in
conformity with the foregoing provisions of this act for
the construction of tenement houses hereafter erected. If
the stairs in any now existing tenement house shall be
damaged by fire or otherwise to an amount greater than
one-half of the value thereof, the entire stairs in the said
tenement house shall be reconstructed in accordance with
the provisions of this act for stairs in tenement houses
hereafter erected.

Where a tenement house is only slightly damaged by
fire, it is proper that the owner should be allowed to
restore it to its original condition; where, however, the
building is so damaged that the greater part of it has to
be rebuilt, it should be rebuilt in accordance with the
present laws. This method of determining the amount of
damage is employed in the present building laws, and has
been employed in former legislation upon this subject
(Consol. Act., Sec. 497).

*
TITLE 3. Provisions applicable to all tenement houses
hereafter erected or now existing.

SECTION 85. Fire escapes. All fire escapes hereafter con-
structed upon tenement houses shall be located and con-
structed as described in Section twelve of this act. The
owner of every tenement house shall keep all the fire escapes
thereon in good order and repair, and whenever rusty
shall have them properly painted with two coats of paint.
No person shall at any time place any encumbrance of
any kind before or upon any such fire escape.

This is practically the present law with slight changes.
The provision in reference to the encumbrance of fire
escapes has been simplified.
115

SECTION 36. Stairways. In every tenement house all
stairways shall be provided with proper banisters and rail-
ings and kept in good repair.

This is the present law.

SECTION 37. Shafts. All shafts hereafter constructed in
tenement houses shall be constructed fireproof throughout,
with fireproof self-closing doors at all openings, at each
story, except window openings in vent shafts; and, if
they extend to the cellar, shall also be enclosed in the cel.
lar with fireproof walls and fireproof self-closing doors at
all openings. In no case shall any shaft be constructed of
materials in which any inflammable material or substance
enters into any of the component parts. But nothing in
this section contained shall be so construed as to require
such enclosures about elevators or dumb-waiters in the
well-hole of stairs where the stairs themselves are enclosed
in brick or stone walls, and are entirely constructed of
fireproof materials as hereinbefore provided.

This, with one exception, is the present law, and has
been the law of this State since 1887. The exception is
that the present law does not require dumb-waiter shafts
to be fireproof if they extend only through three stories
of a building. Every person who made recommendations
to the Commission on this subject urged that all dumb-
waiter shafts should be fireproof throughout. The neces-
sity of such a requirement cannot be doubted.

Section 388. Plastering behind wainscoting. When
wainscoting is hereafter placed in any tenement house, or
any building in process of alteration into a tenement
house, the surface of the wall or partition behind such
wainscoting shall be plastered down to the floor line, and
any intervening space between said plastering and said
116

wainscot shall be filled in solid with incombustible ma-
terial.

This has been the law since 1892.

Section 39. Wooden buildings on same lot with a tene-
ment house. No wooden building of any kind whatsoever
shall hereafter be placed or built upon the same lot with
a tenement house within the fire limits of the City of New
York.

The present law permits wooden sheds of a certain size
and wooden outhouses to be constructed even within the
fire limits. Where the danger from fire affects so many
lives, no reasonable precaution should be omitted that
will reduce this danger.

SecTion 40. Combustible Materials. No tenement
house, nor any part thereof, shall be used as a place of
storage for any combustible article except under such con-
ditions as may be prescribed by the Fire Department of
the City of New York, under authority of a written per-
mit issued by said department. No tenement house, nor
any part thereof, shall be used as a place of storage for
any article dangerous to life or health, nor for the storage
of feed, hay, straw, excelsior or cotton, nor for the stor-
age or handling of rags.

This is with certain changes the present law, and also
what has been the law of this State since 1862. The
changes are as follows: The Charter permits the storage
of feed, hay and straw in a tenement house, under condi-
tions laid down by the Fire Department. The Commis-
sion believes that this should be absolutely prohibited.
The Commission has, however, not forbidden the storage
117

of combustible articles in tenement houses under appro-
priate rules of the Fire Department, as it would obviously
be unfair to prohibit the sale of kerosene oil in a grocery
store which might be in a tenement house.

SECTION 41. Bakeries and fat boiling. No bakery and
no place of business in which fat is boiled shall be main-
tained in any tenement house which is not fireproof
throughout, unless the ceiling and side walls of said bak-
ery or of the said place where fat boiling is done are
made safe by fireproof materials around the same, and
there shall be no openings either by door or window,
dumb-waiter shafts or otherwise, between said bakery
or said place where fat is boiled in any tenement house
and the other parts of the said building.

This is the present law slightly changed, as the verbiage
of the latter was somewhat ambiguous.

SECTION 42. Other dangerous businesses. All transoms
and windows opening into halls from any portion of a
tenement house where paint, oil, spirituous liquors or
drugs are stored for the purpose of sale or otherwise,
shall be glazed with wire-glass or they shall be removed
and closed up as solidly as the rest of the wall; and all
doors leading into any such hall from such portion of said
house shall be made fireproof.

This is the present law, except that the present law
limits this requirement to stores on the first floor. It is
apparent that the danger is even greater where there are
such stores in the basement.
118

CHAPTER III.
LIGHT AND VENTILATION.

Titi 1. Provisions applicable only to tenement houses
hereafter erected.

SECTION 51. Percentage of lot occupied. No tenement
house hereafter erected shall occupy more than ninety per
centum of a corner lot, or more than seventy per centum
of any other lot, the measurements in all cases to be taken
at the ground level; provided, that the space occupied by
fire escapes of the size hereinbefore prescribed shall not be
deemed a part of the lot occupied.

The law since 1879 has limited the percentage of lot per-
mitted to be occupied on an interior lot to 65 per cent., but
discretionary power has been given to different officials
to modify this requirement in special cases, except for
about a year in 1891-1892, when such discretionary power
was withdrawn. In 1895, the amount of space to be oc-
cupied was limited to 65 per cent., but discretionary power
was given to the Superintendent of Buildings to permit 75
per cent. to be occupied ‘‘ where the light and ventilation
of the building was materially improved.” The result has
been that in 99 cases out of a hundred, this discretion las
been exercised, and the exception has become the rule.
The Commission finds that the practice at the present time
is to build on 75 per cent of the lot. The Commission
therefore renews the recommendation made by the Tene-
ment House Committee of 1894 that no more than 70 per
cent. of the lot be K alaaecae to be occupied in the case of
an interior lot, and no more than 90 per cent. in the case
of a corner lot. The Commission believes that this will
be adequate in view of the other provisions made else-
where in this Code for courts and other open spaces.

Srecrion 52. Height. The height of no tenement house
hereafter erected shall by more than one-third exceed
the width of the widest street upon which it stands. Such
height shall be the perpendicular distance measured in
a straight line from the curb level to the highest point
119

of the building exclusive of cornices and bulkheads, pro-
vided such bulkheads are not more than eight feet high
and do not exceed in area ten per centum of the area of
the roof; the nieasurements in all cases shall be taken
through the centre of the facade of the house.

The laws of this State have recognized since 1885 that
the height of buildings of this kind should be regulated
by the width of the street on which they face. The law
of 1885, Chapter 454, limited the height of such buildings
to 70 feet where the streets were 60 feet or less in width,
and to 80 feet on streets over 60 feet in width. This re-
mained the law of this state for 12 years, and should, in
the opinion of this Commission, be the law to-day. By
the law of 1897, however, buildings were allowed to be
erected to a height of 150 feet upon streets 80 feet or over
in width and to a height of 100 feet on streets less than 80
feet in width.

While the Commission would like to limit the height of
tenement houses, including apartment houses, to the
limits prescribed by the law of 1885, it appreciates
that this is rather a part of the general problem of high
buildings than of the tenement house problem in particular,
and that it would be manifestly illogical to limit an apart-
ment house to 80 feet, whilea hotel or an apartment hotel
would still be permitted to be erected to a height of 150
feet. The Commission believes, however, that high build-
ings, particularly in residential quarters, are a serious det-
riment to the welfare of the city from every point of view,
and that their height should be further restricted. It
would call attention to the fact that the law in Washing-
ton requires that no building shall exceed in height the
width of the street in front, and that residence buildings
shall never be over 90 feet high. In Europe the require-
ments upon this subject are much more stringent than in
this country. In Manchester, England, where the street
is not over 30 feet in width the buildings are not allowed
to exceed two stories in height, while on streets between
30 and 36 feet in width dwelling houses may be three
stories high.

In Liverpool the height of no dwelling house may ex-
ceed the width of the street upon which it faces, and it is
further provided that no house built on a court shall be of
120

a greater height than 30 feet nor contain more than two
stories above the ground floor.

In Edinburgh no house may exceed one and one-fourth
times the width of the street or court upou which it faces,
and no house shall in any case exceed 60 feet in height
without the consent of the local authorities. ;

In Glasgow the law requires that the height of dwelling-
houses shall not be greater than the width of the street on
which they face. In the laws of Berlin there is a similar
requirement. :

In Paris the height of dwelling houses is determined by
the width of the street. For houses on streets of 24 feet
or-less in width the building shall not exceed a height of
39 feet. Where the street is not over 32 feet in width the
height of the building is limited to 50 feet; where the
street is 65 feet in width the height of the building is
limited to 65 feet. The Paris law also prohibits any
building from containing more than seven stories above
the ground floor.

Section 58. Yards. Behind every tenement house here-
after erected there shall be a yard extending across the
entire width of the lot and at every point open from the
ground to the sky unobstructed, except that fire escapes
or unenclosed outside stairs may project not over three feet
from the rear line of the house. The depth of said yard,
measured from the extreme rear wall of the house to
the rear line of the lot, shall be as set forth in the two fol-
lowing sections.

Section 54. Yardsof interior lots. Except uponacorner
lot the depth of the yard behind every tenement house
hereafter erected sixty feet in height shall be not less than
twelve feet in every part. Said yard shall be increased in
depth one foot for every additional twelve feet of height
of the building, or fraction thereof; and may be decreased
in depth one foot for every twelve feet of height of the
building less than sixty feet; but it shall never be less
than ten feet in depth in any part.

Since the passage of the first tenement house law in
1867, the law has required that there shall be a yard space
121

of 10 feet at the rear of the building. This law was
framed at a time when the majority of the tenement
houses in the city were three stories high, only a few
as much as four stories in height, and practically none
higher. Such houses then accommodated about eight
families ineach. It is obvious, therefore, that a yard space
which was sufficient for a building three stories high is
not sufficient for a building six stories in height and that
such yard space should increase proportionately with the.
increase in the height of the building. The Commission
therefore recommends that the depth of the yard for a
building six stories high shall be not less than 12 feet
and that this space shall be increased in proportion as the
building increases in height, and shall be decreased to a
minimum of 10 feet in proportion as the building is lower.
The Commission would have preferred to recommend that
such yards should be at least 15 feet in depth, but refrains
ce so doing from practical and commercial considera-
ions.

In connection with this subject of yard space it is im-
portant to note what the laws are in European cities upon
this subject.

In Manchester the law requires that the yard shall have
a minimum depth of 10 feet and that for buildings 35 feet
in height this yard space shall be 25 feet in depth. The
law in Liverpool requires that where houses are between
20 and 30 feet in height the depth of the yard must be 10
feet, and that where houses exceed 30 feet in height the
yard space must be 15 feet. In Edinburgh the law re-
quires that the yard space at the rear must be equal to
three-fourths of the area to be occupied by the building in
cases where the building is not more than four stories in
height, and where the building is more than four stories
in height then the yard space must be equal in area to the
area of the house. In other leading European cities there
are similar provisions.

Section 55. Yards of corner lots. The depth of the yard
behind every tenement house hereafter erected upon a
corner lot shall be not less than ten feet in every part.

Since 1867 the law has made no distinction between cor-
ner lots and other lots in regard to the amount of yard
122

space, requiring a minimum space of 10 feet, but giving
to the officials charged with the enforcement of the law
the right to lessen or modify this distance in special cases.
In 1880 the law for the first time limited this discretion to
corner lots, but not until 1895 was any other difference
made between interior and corner lots. The law of 1895
provided that the yard space on corner lots should not be
less than 5 feet in depth and that such yard space might
start at the second story. It is to be borne in mind that
the open space on corner lots is the only means of
securing through ventilation in the interior of the block
and that unless such open spaces are left there will simply
be a stagnant well of vitiated air inside of the block,
which has very little opportunity of being renewed. The
law in Edinburgh requires that a clear opening 15 feet
wide shall be left at two opposite points of the block to
furnish through ventilation, and the law in Glasgow is
similar. The Commission therefore has recommended
that the yard space should start at the ground or curb
level and shall not be permitted to start at the second
story. The present law so provides. The law of 1895
permitted the yard space for a corner lot to start at the
second story; the Charter, however, changed this so as to
require the yard space to start at the ground level.

Section 56. Yard spaces of lots running through from
street to street. Wherever a tenement house hereafter
erected is upon a lot which runs through from one street
to another street, and said lot is not less than seventy feet
nor more than one hundred feet in depth, there shall be a
yard space through the centre of the lot midway between
the two streets, which space shall extend across the full
width of the lot and shall never be Jess than twelve feet in
depth from wall to wall; but where the ground floor of
such building is used or intended to be used as a store,
such yard space may start at the second tier of beams.
Where such lot is over one hundred feet in depth such
yard space shall conform to the provisions of section sixty-
two of this act for inner courts, and shall be left through
the centre of the lot midway between the two streets.
123

_ There is no provision in the present law upon this sub-
ject, and the Commission finds that in some cases the
Department of Buildings has permitted buildings of this
kind to cover the entire lot, making allowance for air
shafts but leaving no yard space of any kind. It is ap-
parent that under certain conditions this may be per-
mitted. In other cases, however, an open space should
certainly be left. The Commission, therefore, has framed
a provision to meet such cases.

SECTION 57. Courts. No court of a tenement house here-
after erected shall be covered by a roof or skylight, but
every such court shall be at every point open from the
ground to the sky unobstructed, and shall conform to the
requirements of the following sections: provided, that an
apartment not containing any room fronting upon the
street or yard may have a fire escape in a court, project-
ing not more than three feet from the wall of the house.

Prior to 1895 the law did not prohibit the covering over
of a court. The law of 1895 forbade this in the case of a
court less than ten square feet in area, and such a space
was deemed not to be part of the free air space, but was
considered part of the building. This is the present law
upon this subject. The Commission recommends that no
ue shall be allowed to be roofed over under any circum-
stances.

SEcTION 58. Outer courts. Where one side of an outer
court is situated on the lot line, the width of the said court,
measured from the lot line to the opposite wall of the
building, for tenement houses sixty feet in height shall
not be less than six feet in any part; and for every twelve
feet of increase or fraction thereof in the height of the
said building, such width shall be increased six inches
throughout the entire height of said court; and for every
twelve feet of decrease in the height of the said building
below sixty feet, such width may be decreased six inches,
124

but no such court shall be less than four feet six inches
wide in any part.

The Commission recommends that the present airshafts
be prohibited in all future tenement houses, as they are of
no value in supplying either light or air, but, on the con-
trary, are a serious detriment to the building. The evidence
upon this point is overwhelming. In place of airshafts
the Commission would recommend that the provisions of
the laws in Buffalo and Philadelphia be followed, and that
courts sufficiently large to secure adequate light and ven-
tilation to all rooms be provided. The Commission has
therefore sought to establish a principle regulating the
size of such courts, and in doing so has based its conclu-
sions largely upon a law already found in existence in the
cities of Buffalo and Philadelphia, which has worked in
practice admirably. The Commission, therefore, at the
start has distinguished’ between open courts or outer
courts and closed courts or inner courts; that is, between
courts open on one entire side, and thus permitting the
circulation of air and the admission of sunlight from
street or yard, and courts that are entirely enclosed on all
four sides by the building. It is apparent that the size of
all courts should bear a definite relation to the height of
the building just as the height of the building should be
regulated by the width of the street. The Commission
bas provided that such width shall be increased in pro-
portion as the building increases in height, and may be
similarly decreased as the building is less in height. The
Commission also believes it desirable to distinguish be-
tween outer courts which may be situated on the lot line
and outer courts between wings of the same building.
Where suck a court is situated on the lot line, it is not only
possible but very probable that the owner of the adjoining
property will leave a similar court so as to secure the ad-
vantage of a larger space. The Commission, therefore,
has recommended that the minimum width of such courts
shall be 6 feet for a building 60 feet in height, and that
the court shall be increased six inches in width for every
additional 12 feet of height. Such a method of increase
is already recognized in principle by the present regula-
tions of the Department of Buildings which require air-
shafts to be increased 4 inches in width for each story
above the fifth story.
125

SECTION 59. Outer courts, continued. Where an outer
court is situated between wings or parts of the same build-
ing, or between different buildings on the same lot, the
width of the said court, measured from wall to wall, for
tenement houses sixty feet in height shall not be less than
twelve feet in any part; and for every twelve feet of in-
crease or fraction thereof in the height of the said build-.
ing, such width shall be increased one foot throughout the
entire height of the said court; and for every twelve feet
of decrease in the height of the said building below sixty
feet, such width of the said court may be decreased one
foot, but no such court shall ever be less than nine feet in
width in any part.

Where an outer court is located between wings of a
building it is apparent that as there are just twice as
many windows opening upon the court, the court should
be twice as wide as in the case where it is situated on the
lot line. In such cases the Commission has provided that
the minimum width of such court shall be 12 feet for
buildings 60 feet in height, with a provision that the
width shall increase one foot for every additional 12 feet
in height of the building.

This provision is almost identical with the provision of
the Philadelphia law, which requires that an outer court
on the lot line shall be 8 feet as a minimum width, and
where such court is between wings of a building shall be
not less than 12 feet in width. The Buffalo law requires
that outer courts shall be at least 8 feet wide for a build-
ing four stories in height and 1 foot wider for each addi-
tional story above four stories.

The law in Berlin requires that the width of such a
court shall be at least 8 feet, and that where there are
windows opening upon a court (the equivalent of our court
between wings) such court shall be 20 feet in width.

SECTION 60. Outer courts, continued. Wherever an outer
court changes its initial horizontal direction, or wherever
any part of such court extends in a direction so as not to
receive direct light from the street or yard, the length of
126

such portion of said court shall never exceed the width
of said portion; such length to be measured from the point
at which the change of direction commences. Wherever
an outer court is less in depth than the minimum width
prescribed by this section, then its width may be equal to,
but not less than its depth, provided that such width is
never less than four feet in the clear. This exception
shall also apply to each offset or recess in outer courts.
And no window except windows of water closet compart-
ments, bathrooms or halls shall open upon any offset or
recess less than six feet in its least dimension.

This section has been framed to provide for cases where
an outer court might suddenly change its direction and
extend in adirection parallel to the street for a consider-
able length, being almost in such cases the equivalent of
an inner court, and not receiving direct light from the
street. It is apparent that in such cases such portions of
the court should be materially increased in width. An
attempt has also been made in this section to provide for
cases in which it might be desired to have a very shallow
street-court or yard-court simply to light one or more
rooms, and which might not be greater than 8 feet in
depth. It would obviously be unfair to require suclf a
court to be 12 feet wide, and the Commission has there-
fore provided in this section for such contingencies.

Section 61. Inner courts. Where one side of an inner
court is situated on the lot line, the width of the said court
measured from the lot line to the opposite wall of the
building, for tenement houses sixty feet in height shall
not be less than twelve feet in any part, and its other hori-
zontal dimension shall not be less than twenty-four feet in
any part; and for every twelve feet of increase or fraction
thereof in the height of the said building, such width shall
be increased six inches throughout the entire height of
said court, and the other horizontal dimension shall be
increased one foot throughout the entire height of said
court; and for every twelve feet of decrease in the height
127

of the said building below sixty feet, such width may be
decreased six inches and the other horizontal dimension
may be decreased one foot, but no such court shall be less
than ten and a half feet in width in any part, nor less
than twenty-one feet in its other horizontal dimension.

_In regard to inner courts, or courts enclosed on all four
sides, the Commission has sought to provide that such
courts shall be of a size sufficient to provide adequate
light and ventilation. There has been a decided senti-
ment in the community against these courts and the
Commission has been urged to prohibit them entirely.
This, however, would not be expedient, as such courts
when of a sufficient size are adequate for purposes of light
and ventilation. Where such a court is situated on the
lot line the Commission has recommended that the min-
imum width of the court from the lot line to the building
shall be 12 feet and its other least dimension shall be 24
feet, these minima being prescribed for a building 60 feet
in height. If the owner of the adjoining property repeats
an inner court of similar dimensions on his lot, as he
is likely to do, it would give a large court 24 feet by 24
feet. In determining the other minimum dimension of
this court the Commission has adopted the principle of
the law passed in 1867, which prescribed the distance be-
tween front and rear tenement houses, requiring a dis-
tance of 25 feet where the buildings were over three stories
in height. It is apparent that the inner court should be
treated in exactly the same way as the space between a
front and rear tenement house, and that the distance be-
tween the two wings of a building should not be appre-
ciably less than that provided in the case of front and rear
tenements. The Commission has provided that all inner
courts shall increase in both dimensions as the building
increases in height beyond 60 feet, and may similarly be
decreased in both dimensions for a corresponding decrease
in height.

°

Section 62. Inner courts, continued. Where an inner
court is not situated upon the lot line, but is enclosed on
all four sides, the least horizontal dimension of the said
court for tenement houses sixty feet in height, shall
128

not be less than twenty-four feet; and for every twelve
feet of increase or fraction thereof in the height of the
said building, the said court shall be increased one foot
in each horizontal dimension, throughout the entire height
of said court; and for every twelve feet of decrease in the
height of the said building below sixty feet, the horizontal
dimensions of the said court may be decreased one foot in
each direction, but no such court shall ever be less than
twenty-one feet in its least horizontal dimension. Offsets
or recesses in inner courts will be permitted, but where
the depth of such offset or recess is less than the minimum
width prescribed, then the width of said offset or recess
may be equal to but not less than its depth, provided that
such width is never less than four feet in the clear. And
no window except windows of water closet compartments,
bath rooms or halls shall open upon any offset or recess
less than six feet in its least dimension.

Where an inner court is enclosed on four sides it is ap-
parent that its width should be equal to twice the width
of such a court where it is situated on the lot line. The
Commission has, therefore, provided for minimum dimen-
sions, with a requirement that both dimensions of sych
court shall increase in proportion to the height of the
building.

SecTIiON 63. Inner courts, continued. Every inner
court shall be provided with one or more horizontal in-
takes or ducts at the bottom. Said intakes or ducts shall
be not less in total area than four per centum of the area
of said inner court. Each such intake or duct sball be at
least five square feet in area, and shall always communi-
cate directly with the street or yard. Wherever the said
intakes or ducts consist of a passageway or passageways,
such passageway shall be left open, or if not open there
shall always be provided in said passageway or passage-
ways open grilles or transoms of a size not less than five
square feet each, and such open grilles or transoms shall
129

never be covered over by glass or in any other way.
There shall be at least two such grilles or transoms in each
such passageway, one at the inner court and the other at
the street or yard, as the case may be.

Where large inner courts have been used in tenement
houses, it has been found that while they may adequately
light the rooms they do not provide adequate ventilation
unless there is some means of creating a draught; that
otherwise the air simply remains stagnant within the four
walls. The Commission has, therefore, required that
there shall always be at the bottom of such court a hori-
zontal intake or duct to provide a circulation of air.

SECTION 64. Outer and inner courts. .Nothing con-
tained in the foregoing sections concerning outer and
inner courts shall be construed as preventing windows at
the angles of said courts, provided that the running
length of the wall containing such windows does not
exceed six feet. In construing said sections the height
of the building is to be measured from the curb level to
the top of the highest wall enclosing or forming such
court.

The present law does not provide for the turning of a
corner in a court making an angle. According to the
present practice this is permitted. It is important that
the law should state clearly what may be done in such
cases.

Section 65. Rear tenements. No separate tenement
house shall hereafter be erected upon the rear of a lot fifty
feet or less in width where there is a tenement house on
the front of the said lot, nor upon the front of any such
lot upon the rear of which there is such a tenement house.
130

While the tenement house law has never hitherto for-
bidden in terms the erection of a rear tenement house, it
has practically prohibited it by prescribing the distance
that shall be maintained between the front and rear
buildings.

Section 66. Butldings on same lot with tenement
houses. If any building is hereafter placed on the same
lot with a tenement house the space between the said
buildings shall always be of such size and arranged in
such manner as is prescribed in Section sixty-two of
this act for inner courts; and no building of any kind
shall be hereafter placed upon the same lot with a tene-
ment house so as to decrease the minimum size of courts
or yards as hereinbefore prescribed. And if any tene-
ment house is hereafter erected upon any lot upon which
there is already another building, it shall comply with all
of the provisions of this act, and in addition the space be-
tween the said building and the said tenement house shall
be of such size and arranged in such manner as is pre-
scribed in Section sixty-two of this act for inner courts,
the height of the highest building on the lot to regulate
the dimensions. .

It is, of course, essential that if proper open spaces and
courts are provided for new tenement houses they shall
be kept open and shall not at some future date be en-
croached upon. It is also important to provide for the
case of two buildings being erected on the same lot. It is
apparent that in such cases the space between the build-
ings is exactly the same as an inner court and should be
so treated in the law. The provisions in this section as to
the distance between such buildings are in this regard
practically the provisions of the first tenement house act
of ae which have been continued in all subsequent leg-
islation.

Section 67. Rooms, lighting and ventilating of. In
every tenement house hereafter erected every room, ex-
181

cept water-closet compartments and bathrooms, shall
have at least one window opening directly upon the street
or upon a yard or court.

The law since 1879 has required that every living room
or room used for sleeping purposes shall have at least one
window admitting light and air directly from the public
street or yard, and this provision has been re-enacted in
all subsequent legislation. It is the present law upon this
subject, the Charter requiring that in all new tenement
houses each room must have a separate window opening
into the outer air. In the case of water-closet compart-
ments and bathrooms, while it is desirable, the Commis-
sion does not feel that itis essential that such rooms should
in every case open upon courts of a size prescribed in this
act, and has therefore made an exception in these cases.

SECTION 68. Windows in rooms. In every tenement
house hereafter erected the total window area in each
room, except water-closet compartments and bathrooms,
shall be at least one-tenth of the superficial area of the
room, and the top at least of one window shall not be less
than seven feet six inches above the floor, and the upper
half of it shall be made so as to open the full width. No
such window shall be less than twelve square feet in area
between the stop beads.

This is the present law and what has been the law in
this State since 1867.

SEcTION 69. Windows in water-closet compartments and
bathrooms. In every tenement house hereafter erected
the total window area in a water-closet compartment or
bathroom shall not be less than three square feet in area
for each, and no such window shall be less than one foot
in width, measured between stop beads.
132

This is the present requirement of the Building Depart-
ment.

Section 70. Rooms, Size of. In every tenement house
hereafter erected all rooms, except water-closet compart-
ments and bathrooms, shall be of the following minimum
sizes: In each apartment there shall be at least one room
containing not less than one hundred and twenty square
feet of floor area, and each other room shall contain at
least seventy square feet of floor area. Each room shall
be in every part not less than nine feet high from the
finished floor to the finished ceiling; provided that an
attic room need be nine feet high in but one-half its area.

The law has never prescribed a minimum size for rooms,
it has, however, prescribed a minimum height and a
minimum cubic air space for the persons occupying them,
which should practically have the same effect. The Com-
mission finds that the more practical method of enforcing
a requirement as to the amount of cubic air space is by
prescribing a minimum size of room. Moreover, the
rooms in new tenement houses have become so small that
it is now necessary to lay down minimum dimensions.
The Commission has, therefore, recommended that such
minimum dimensions be established, and that no room
used for sleeping purposes be less than 70 square feet in
floor area. In regard to the height of rooms, the Com-
mission finds that the present law provides in one place
fora minimum height of 7 feet, in another place for a
minimum height of 8 feet, and the regulations of the
Building Department provide for a minimum height of
9 feet 4 inches, the present practice being to construct
rooms of the height of 9 feet and 4 inches. The Commission
thinks that it is unnecessary to make so great a height as
9 feet and 4 inches compulsory and therefore recommends
that not more than 9 feet be required.

SECTION 71. Alcoves. In every tenement house hereafter
erected where any room adjoins another room, and has
133

eighty per centum or more of one entire side open to the
other room, and there is no door between, it shall be con-
sidered as part of the said room. Under other circum-
stances every alcove shall be deemed a separate room for
all purposes within the meaning of this act.

The present law makes no provision for alcove rooms,
although the Building Department requires that alcove
rooms must comply with all the requirements of other
rooms. As analcove room is not defined it becomes a nice
question at times where to draw the line. The Commis-
zen thas therefore sought to establish such a point of

ivision.

Section 72. Public halls. In every tenement house
hereafter erected every public hall shall have at least one
window opening directly upon the street or upon a yard
or court. Hither such window shall be at the end of said
hall, with the plane of the window at right angles to the
axis of the said hall, or there shall be at least one window
opening directly upon the street or upon a yard or court
for every twenty feet iu length or fraction thereof of said
hall. In such halls recesses or returns the length of which
does not exceed twice the width of the hall will be per-
mitted without an additional window. But wherever the
length of such recess or return exceeds twice the width of
the hall the above provisions in reference to one window
for every twenty feet of hallway shall be applied. Any
part of a hall which is shut off from any other part of said
hall by a door or doors shall be deemed a separate hall
within the meaning of this section.

Since the very beginning of tenement house legislation
the evils of the dark, unventilated hallways have been
thoroughly recognized and efforts have been made to
correct these evils. The very first law, that of 1867,
provides: ‘‘ That the halls on each floor shall open directly
134

to the external air with suitable windows and shall have
no room or other obstruction at the end unless sufficient
light or ventilation is otherwise provided for in a manner
approved by the Board of Health.” This provision has
been re-enacted in all subsequent legislation upon this
subject and is part of the present law. A further pro-
vision was added in 1887, that if the halls of such a house
did not open directly to the external air with suitable
windows at the ends of the halls, the building should not
be used or occupied unless sufficient light and ventilation
is otherwise provided. The Commission finds that these
two important provisions of the law have practically
never been enforced and that most serious evils have re-
sulted from the lack of their enforcement. The Commis-
sion also finds that in new tenement houses constructed
during the past few years a great number of the buildings
have been erected with totally dark halls. It has there-
fore provided in its recommendations that every public
hall shall have at least one window opening either on the
street or a yard or upon an adequate court, and that the
window shall be located in such part of the hall as to
secure sufficient light and ventilation.

SECTION 73. Windows for public halls, size of. In
every tenement house hereafter erected one at least of the
windows provided to light each public hall or part thereof
shall be at least two feet six inches wide and five feet
high, measured between stop beads.

The tenement house law has never provided a minimum
size of window for halls, although it has provided a mini-
mum size for windows in rooms. It is obvious that what
is necessary in the case of rooms is necessary in the case
of halls.

Section 74. Windows for stair halls, size of. In every
tenement house hereafter erected the aggregate area of
windows to light or ventilate stair halls shall be at least
twenty-one square feet for each floor. There shall be pro-
135

vided for each story at least one of said windows, which
shall be at least three feet wide and five feet high, meas.
ured between the stop beads.

A similar requirement is necessary for the windows
which light and ventilate the public stairs of buildings.

Section 75. Privacy. In every apartment of three or
more rooms in a tenement house hereafter erected, access
to every room including bath-rooms and water-closet com-
partments, shall be had without passing through any
bedroom.

The law has never required any provision for privacy in
a tenement house. The Building Department regulations,
however, have provided for some years that access to all
rooms must be direct without passing through a bedroom.
The Commission recommends that this requirement be
embodied in the law, as it is obvious that it is not condu-
cive to morality or decency to make it necessary for people
to pass through a bedroom in order to reach the water-
closet.

TITLE 2. Provisions applicable only to now existing ten-
ement houses.

Section 76. Percentage of lot occupied. No now exist-
ing tenement house shall hereafter be enlarged, or its lot
be diminished, so that the house occupy more than ninety
per centum of a corner lot, or more than seventy per
centum of any other lot, the measurements in all cases to
be taken at the ground level; provided that the space occu-
pied by fire escapes of the size hereinbefore prescribed
shall not be deemed a part of the lot occupied.
136

It is of course desirable that existing tenement houses
shall not be allowed to be altered so as to cover a greater
percentage of the lot than would be permitted in the case
of new tenement houses.

Section 77. Yards. No now existing tenement house
shall hereafter be enlarged or its lot be diminished, so that
the yard shall be less than five feet in depth when the
building is on a corner lot or less than twelve feet in depth
in other cases, the measurements in all cases to be taken
from the extreme rear wall of the building to the rear lot
line, and across the full width of the lot, and such yard
shall be at every point open from the ground to the sky,
except as provided in Section fifty-three of this act.

It is apparent that in existing tenement houses the
present yard space should not be allowed to be encroached
upon by extending the buildings beyond the limits pro-
vided in the case of new tenement houses.

SEctTIon 78. Additional rooms and halls. Any addi-
tional room or hall that is hereafter constructed or created
in a now existing tenement house shall comply in all re-
spects with the provisions of the foregoing sections of this
chapter as to the size, arrangement, light and ventilation
of rooms and halls in tenement houses hereafter erected.

Previous tenement house laws have in a great majority
of their provisions applied to buildings that might be al-
tered, as well as to buildings that might be thereafter
erected. It is manifestly unjust to require that if the
owner of a tenement house wishes to make some slight
alteration in his building, which will materially improve
it, he must comply with all the provisions of the law re-
lating to the construction of new tenement houses. If, on
the other hand, however, the owner of an existing tene-
ment house desires to add any rooms or halls to his build-
187

ing, it is, of course, proper that the different halls and

rooms thus added should comply with the provisions of the

law in reference to halls and rooms in new tenement houses,

otherwise the owner of a building might extend his build-

ing to almost any distance and evade the provisions of the

7 in regard to light and ventilation in new tenement
ouses.

SECTION 79. Rooms, lighting and ventilation of, con-
tinued. No room in a now existing tenement house shall
hereafter be occupied for living purposes unless it shall
have a window upon the street, or upon a yard not less
than five feet deep, or upon a court or shaft of not less
than twenty-five square feet in area, open to the sky
without roof or skylight, or unless such room has a sash
window opening into an adjoining room in the same apart-
ment which itself has a window opening on the street, or
on a yard not less than five feet deep, said sash window
having at least fifteen square ‘feet of glazed surface, be-
ing at least three feet high and five feet wide between
stop beads, and at least one-half thereof being made
to open readily. Furthermore, no room in a now exist-
ing tenement house which does not have a window open-
ing directly upon the street or upon a yard not less than
five feet deep or upon a court or shaft of not less than
twenty-five square feet in area open tothe sky without roof
or skylight shall hereafter be occupied for living purposes
unless such room contains at least sixty square feet of floor
area, and also at least six hundred cubic feet of air space;
and no such room shall be so occupied unless there is six
hundred cubic feet of air to each individual occupying the
same. No such room shall be so occupied unless it be in
every part not less than eight feet high from the finished
floor to the finished ceiling; provided, that an attic room
need be eight feet high in but half its area.

There are in this city a number of old, unsanitary tene-
ment houses containing small dark rooms without any
188

means of light or ventilation to the outer air. In some
cases these rooms communicate with an adjoining room
which opens to the street or to the yard, and in other cases
there are even as many as three or four rooms in a line only
one of which communicates with the outer air. As the
law since 1879 has required that every living room ina
tenement house thereafter erected should have a window
opening directly to the outer air, it is apparent that these
buildings have for more than twenty years been violating
fundamental sanitary rules. The public health demands
that these rooms shall either be made fit for human habita-
tion or shall not be used for living purposes. The Com-
mission therefore has recommended that no room in an
existing tenement house shall be occupied for living pur-
poses unless it has proper neans of ventilation. Where
such a room has no window to the outer air but adjoins a
room which has such communication, then if a glass par-
tition with a movable sash of sufficient size is provided be-
tween the two rooms the Commission believes that the
inner room may be permitted to be occupied, but such
inner room then must containat least sixty square feet of
floor area and also at least 600 cubic feet of air space for
each occupant.

SECTION 80. Public halls, lighting of. In every now
existing tenement house four stories or over in heighf,
whenever a public hall on any floor is not light enough in
the daytime to permit a person to read in every part
thereof without the aid of artificial light, the wooden
panels in the doors located at the ends of the public halls
and opening into rooms shall be removed, and ground
glass or wire glass panels of an aggregate area of not less
than four square feet for each door shall be substituted;
or in lieu of removing the panels in the doors a fixed sash
window of wire glass of an area of not less than five
square feet may be cut into the partitions separating the
said hall from a room which opens directly upon the street
or upon a yard, court, or shaft of the dimensions specified
in the last section; or said public hall may be lighted by a
window or windows at the end thereof with the plane of
the window at right angles to the axis of the said hall,
139

said window opening upon the street or upon a yard,
court, or shaft of said dimensions.

Allusion has already been made to the very serious evils
of dark halls, and the grave moral evils as well as the
evils from the point of view of sanitation and health.
The Tenement House Commission appointed by the Leg-
islature in 1894 sought to remedy these evils by recom-
mending that in dark hallways a light should be kept
burning in each hall from sunrise until ten o’clock at
night. The Commission finds that this law is a dead
letter; that the hallways in most of the tenement houses
in this city are pitch black, and that in hardly any case is
a light kept burning in the daytime. It is apparent that
such a law must be very difficult of enforcement even if
the Department of Health had a large force of inspectors,
as it is very simple for the owner or janitor to turn out
the light after the inspector’s back is turned, so that really
to enforce the law an army of inspectors would be needed.
The Commission has therefore sought to substitute a pro-
vision which, when once enforced, will stay enforced.
It recommends that the wooden panels in the doors
leading from the public halls to the rooms shall be
taken out, and that ground glass or wire glass panels shall
be substituted; or, in lieu of this, a proper window shall
be cut into the hall at the end communicating with the
outer air. This will involve only a comparatively slight
expense, and will accomplish great improvement in the
condition of the hallways. It is a method that has been
often adopted, and has worked admirably in the construc-
tion of new tenement houses and in many of the old tene-
ments.

Section 81. Light and vent shafts in existing build-
ings. Any shaft used or intended to be used to light or
ventilate rooms used or intended to be used for living
purposes, and which may be hereafter placed in a now
existing tenement house, shall not be less in area than
twenty-five square feet, nor less than four feet in width
in any part, and such shaft shall under no circumstances
be roofed or covered over at the top with a roof or sky-
140

light; but if such shaft is provided at the bottom with a
horizontal intake or duct, of a size not less than two
square feet, and communicating directly with the street
or yard, such shaft may be of a size not less than three
feet by five feet, provided that not more than two rooms
on any floor open thereon, and that if it be used to light
or ventilate any living room no water-closet open upon it.

The Commission realizes that the owners of existing
tenement houses may desire to put in an airshaft in order
to light and ventilate rooms which may now be totally
without light or ventilation. If such shafts are hereafter
placed in an existing building, it is entirely proper that
they should conform to the minimum size laid down in
the present law, and the Commission has prepared this
section so as to encourage such improvements in old tene-
ment houses.

TITLE 3. Provisions applicable to all tenement houses
hereafter erected or now existing.

Section 82. Public Halls. In every tenement house a
proper light shall be kept burning by the owner in the
public hallways, near the stairs, upon the entrance floor,
and upon the second floor, above the entrance floor of said
house, every night from sunset to sunrise throughout the
year, and upon all other floors of the said house from sun-
set until ten o’clock in the evening.

The present law requires that a light shall be kept burn-
ing in all hallways from sunset until ten p.m. The Fire
Department has requested that this law be changed so as
to require a light to be kept burning on every floor all
night, claiming that many tenement-house fires are caused
by persous coming home late at night, lighting matches
in the halls and throwing them down half-extinguished.
For reasons of morality, as well as for the ordinary com-
fort of tenement dwellers, it is essential that halls in the .
tenement houses be kept lighted a reasonable time. The
141

Commission has not followed the entire recommendation
of the Fire Department because of the expense involved,
but has recommended that the hall on the entrance floor
and the hall two flights above shall be kept lighted all
night, and that in the other hallways lights shall be kept
burning until ten P. m.

SEcTIon 83. Skylights. In every tenement house there
shall be in the roof, directly over each stair well, a ven-
tilating skylight with both ridge ventilators and fixed
louvres, the glazed surface thereof to be not less than
twenty-five square feet in area.

The law since 1867 has required that in every tenement
house there shall be an adequate and proper ventilating
skylight. It has not, however, specified the size of such
skylight but left it to the discretion of the Commissioner
of Buildings. The Commission believes that it is proper
that a minimum size be specified in the statute.

Section 84. Chimneys or fire places. In every tene-
ment house there shall be adequate chimneys running
through every floor with an open fire place or grate, or
place for a stove, properly connected with one of said
chimneys for every apartment.

This is the present law and has been the law since 1867.

Section 85. Vent shafts. Every vent shaft hereafter
constructed in a tenement house shall be at least
twenty square feet in area, and the least dimension
of such shaft shall not be less than four feet; and if
the building be above sixty feet in height such shaft
shall throughout its entire height be increased in area
three square feet for each additional twelve feet of
142

height or fraction thereof; and for each twelve feet
of height less than sixty feet such shaft may be decreased
in area three square feet. A vent shaft may be enclosed
on all four sides but shall not be roofed or covered over in
any way. Every such shaft shall be provided with a
horizontal in-take or duct at the bottom, communicating
with the street or yard or with a court; such duct or in-
take to be not less than one and one-half square feet in
total area.

The Commission has recommended that water closet
compartments and bathrooms shall be allowed to ventilate
on a smaller open space than that prescribed for bedrooms
and living rooms. The present law provides that all water-
closet compartments shall have a window opening to the
outer air, but in special cases such water-closets are per-
mitted to be ventilated by means of a small metal flue or
duct.

CHAPTER IV.
SANITARY PROVISIONS.

TitLE I. Provisions applicable only to Tenement Houses
hereafter erected. .

SECTION 91. Basements and Cellars. In tenement houses
hereafter erected no room in the cellar shall be con-
structed, altered, converted or occupied for living pur-
poses. And no room in the basement shall be con-
structed, altered, converted or occupied for living pur-
poses, unless all of the following conditions are complied
with:

1. Such room shall be at least nine feet high in every
part from the floor to the ceiling.

2. The ceiling of such room shall be at least four feet
and six inches above the surface of the street or ground
outside of or adjoining the same.

3. There shall be appurtenant to such room the use of
a separate water-closet, constructed and arranged as re-
quired by Section ninety-five of this act.
148

4. Such room shall have a window or windows opening
upon the street, or upon a yard or court. The total area
of windows in such room shall be at least one-eighth of
the superficial area of the room, and one-half of the sash
shall be made to open the full width, and the top of each
window shall be within six inches of the ceiling.

5. All walls surrounding such room shall be made damp
proof in the manner specified in the next section.

6. The floor of such room shall be made damp proof and
water proof in the manner specified in the next section.

The Commission has recommended certain changes in
the present law in regard tu living rooms to be occupied in
basements of future tenement houses. There has been a
very strong demand to prohibit entirely the occupation of
baseinent rooms. The Commission, however, has not seen
its way clear to making so drastic a recommendation. It
therefore recommends that in all tenement houses here-
after erected the height of such rooms must be at least 9
feet, and that at least one-half of the height of the room
shall be above the curb level; also that the rooms shall be
properly ventilated and that the walls and floors shall be
waterproof. This is a change from the present law. The
present law requires such rooms to be 8 feet high instead
of 9 feet, and that the ceiling shall be 2 feet above the curb
instead of 4 feet 6 inches, and further requires that in
front of the rooms and extending across the full width of
the house there shall be an open area at least 2 feet 6
inches wide and constructed in a certain manner. The
Commission believes that such area is not necessary, pro-
vided the ceiling is high enough above the ground and the
walls and floors are made damp-proof.

SECTION 92. Basements and Cellars, continued. Every
tenement house hereafter erected shall have all walls be-
low the ground level and all cellar or lowest floors made
damp-proof and waterproof. Such damp-proofing and
waterproofing shall run through the walls and up the
same as high as the ground level and shall be continued
throughout the floor, and the said cellar or lowest floor
144

shall be properly constructed so as to prevent dampness or
water from entering.

The Commission believes it to be desirable that all walls
below the ground level shall be made damp-proof whether
the basement is occupied for living purposes or not, and
that cellar floors shall be water-tight and similarly damp-
proof. The law since 1867 has provided that cellar floors
shall be properly cemented and water-tight.

SEcTION 93. Shafts, courts, areas and yards. In every
tenement house hereafter erected the bottom of all shafts,
courts, areas and yards which extend to the basement for
light or ventilation of living rooms, must be six inches
below the floor level of the part occupied or intended to
be occupied. All shafts, courts, areas and yards shall be
properly concreted, graded and drained, and shall be prop-
erly connected with the street sewer so that all water may
pass freely into it.

This is the present requirement of the Building De
partment.

Section 94. Water supply. In every tenement house
hereafter erected there shall be in each apartment a proper
sink with running water.

This is the present requirement of the Building Depart-
ment.

Section 95. Water-closet accommodations. In every
tenement house hereafter erected there shall be a separate
water-closet in a separate compartment within each
apartment, provided that where there are apartments con-
145

sisting of but one or two rooms there shall be at: least one
water-closet for every three rooms. All water-closet com-
partments must have a window opening upon the street
or yard or upon a court or vent shaft. Every water-closet
compartment shall be provided with proper means of
lighting the same at night. If fixtures for gas or elec-
tricity are not provided in said compartment, then the door
of said compartment shall be provided with ground glass
or wire glass panels, or with a ground glass or wire glass
transom, not less in area than four square feet. The floor
of every water-closet compartment shall be made water-
proof with asphalt, cement, tile, stone, metal or some
other waterproof material; and such waterproofing shall
extend at least six inches above the floor so that the said
floor can be washed or flushed out without leaking. No
drip trays shall be permitted. No water-closet fixtures
shall be enclosed with any woodwork.

The present law requires at least one water-closet for
every two families in a new tenement house and permits
the location of such water-closets in the public hallway of
the building. The Commission recommends that in every
tenement house hereafter erected there shall be a separate
water-closet for each family and that this water-closet
shall be located within the apartment. No one who has
made any recommendation to the Commission on this
subject has not agreed with this view. As a matter of
fact the Commission finds that it is becoming the practice
for builders to provide such water-closet accommodations
in the new tenement houses. In 61 per cent. of the
houses erected during 1900 and examined by the Com-
mission it was found that a private water-closet for each
family was thus provided. The present law requires
that all water-closet compartments shall have a window
opening upon the outer air. The Commission recom-
mends in effect the continuance of this provision. It fur-
ther recommends that every water closet compartment
shall be provided with proper means of lighting the same
at night as it finds that where such closets cannot be
lighted at night they are apt to be kept in an unclean con-
dition. The present law requires that the floor of every
water-closet compartment shall be made waterproof.
The Commission recommends that this be continued.
146

Section 96. Plumbing. In every tenement house
hereafter erected all plumbing pipes shall wherever pos-
sible be exposed, or if such pipes are covered there shall
be at each floor access to all rising lines through remov-
able panels; said panels shall always be as wide as the
whole stack of pipes, and at least two feet and six inches
in height.

It is important that plumbing pipes should in all cases
be exposed so that if there is any leak they may be readily
reached, and for the more important reason that if the
pipes are covered up the work is apt to be slighted. The
Commission has not thought it best to make this com-
pulsory in all cases, but would recommend that the pipes
be exposed wherever possible.

‘ Tire 2. Provisions applicable only to now existing tene-
ment houses.

Section 97. Basements and Cellars. Hereafter in any
now existing tenement house no room in the basement or
cellar shall be occupied for living purposes without a writ-
ten permit from the Department of Health, and such
permit shall be kept readily accessible in said room. And
no such room shall hereafter be occupied unless all the
following conditions are complied with:

1. Such room shall be at least eight feet high in
every part from the floor to the ceiling.

2. The ceiling of such room shall be in every part
at least two feet above the surface of the street or
ground outside of or adjoining the same.

3. There shall be appurtenant to such room the
use of a separate water-closet.

4. There shall be outside of and adjoining such
room, and extending along the entire frontage
thereof, an open space of at least two feet six inches
wide in every part. The bottom of said space shall
147

be at least six inches below the level of the floor of
the room, and such space shall be well and effectu-
ally drained by a drain the bottom of which shall
be at least one foot below the level of the floor of
the room.

5. Such room shall have a window or windows
opening to the outer air of at least nine square feet
in size clear of the sash frame, and at least four
and one-half square feet of which shall have been
made to readily open for purposes of ventilation.

6. If the house is situated over marshy ground,
or ground on which water lies, or ground on which
there is water pressure from below, the lowest floor
shall have been made waterproof and damp proof.

_ This is the present law upon this subject, with the omis-
sion of some unnecessary portions and with slight changes
in the language, intended to make its meaning more clear.

SECTION 98. Water-closets. In all now existing tene-
ment houses the woodwork enclosing all water-closets
shall be removed from the front of said closet, and the
space underneath the seat shall be left open. The floor
or other surface beneath and around the closet shall be
maintained in good order and repair and shall be kept
well painted with white paint.

The investigations of the sanitary inspectors of the
Commission show that in old tenement houses where the
water-closets are enclosed with woodwork the closets are
apt to get in a very filthy condition, and that it is desirable
that such woodwork be removed and the floor underneath
the closet be properly painted with a light-colored paint,
so that all dirt may be readily seen. The Plumbing Regu-
lations of the Building Department have for many years
forbidden the enclosing of water-closets in new work.
From estimates which have been made the Commission
finds that this change will be comparatively inexpensive.
148

Szotion 99. Public sinks. In all now existing tenement
houses the woodwork enclosing sinks located in the public
halls or stairs shall be removed, and the space underneath
said sinks shall be left open. The floors and wall surfaces
beneath and around the sink shall be maintained in good
order and repair, and shall be kept well painted with
white paint.

The present plumbing rules forbid the enclosing of a
sink with woodwork in new plumbing. The same objec-
tion that pertains to the enclosing of water-closets pertains
with equal effect to the enclosing of sinks, and the Com-
mission recommends that woodwork around old sinks be
removed.

SEcTION 100. Privy Vaults and School Sinks. Inallnow
existing tenement houses, all school-sinks, privy vaults
or other similar receptacles now used to receive fecal mat-
ter, urine or sewage, shall before January 1, 1903, be
completely removed and the place where they were located
properly disinfected under the direction of the Department
of Health. Such appliances shall be replaced by individ-
ual water-closets of durable non-absorbent material,
properly sewer-connected, and with individual traps, and
properly connected flush-tanks providing an ample flush
of water to thoroughly cleanse the bowl. The seats of
the water-closets shall be hinged and attached to the bow!
of the closet. Each water-closet shall be located in a com-
partment completely separated from every other water-
closet. The floors of the water-closet compartment shall
be waterproof as provided in section ninety-five of this
act. Such water-closets may be located in the yard if
necessary, and, if so, long hopper closets may be used;
all traps, flush tanks and pipes shall be protected against
the action of frost. There shall be provided at least one
such water-closet for every two families in said tenement
house. Except as in this section otherwise provided such
149

water-closets and all plumbing in connection therewith

shall be in accordance with the Building Code of the City
of New York.

The use of privy vaults in connection with tenement
houses has for a number of years been prohibited, the
first law upon this subject having been enacted in
1887, and the Board of Health has gradually con-
demned the great majority of these vaults. There
are, however, still in the city a number of school
sinks located in the yards, which are the only privy
accommodations for the occupants of the tenement house.
These school sinks were in nearly every case found
by the Commission’s sanitary inspectors to be in a horrible
condition and a serious menace to the health of the occu-
pants of such houses and the neighboring houses. From
their construction it is very difficult to flush them, and
the inspectors found many cases where they had not been
flushed for weeks. In summer the stench is intolerable,
and unquestionably causes a good deal of sickness. More-
over, the school sinks found in nearly all the buildings
were in a horrible condition, in some cases simply inde-
scribable. The Commission therefore recommends that
within two years all existing school sinks now used in con-
nection with tenement houses be removed and proper
water-closet accommodations be substituted. The Com-
mission has not attempted to specify whether such water-
closets shall be placed in the yard or within the tenement
house; it has: left this to the option of the owner. The
Commissioners realize that in some cases it might be dif-
ficult to protect such water.closets from the action of frost
if they are located in the yard, but know that in any case
they can be located in the house simply by giving up one
room to such purpose. Every consideration of the public
health demands that this action be taken, and the Com-
mission finds, after having estimates made, that the cost
will not be so great as to make this measure an undue
hardship upon the owners of tenement houses.
150

TitLe 8. Provisions applicable to all tenement houses
whether hereafter erected or now existing.

SEcTION 101. Basements and Cellars. The floor of the
cellar or lowest floor of every tenement house shall be
water tight, and the cellar ceiling shall be plastered.

This is the present law and has been the law since 1867.

Section 102. Cellar Walls and Ceilings. The cellar
walls and ceilings of every tenement house shall be thor-
oughly whitewashed or painted a light color by the owner
at least once a year; and no tenement house hereafter
erected, whether or not it has now been actually com-
menced, shall he occupied until this has been done for the
first time.

The present law requires the walls and ceilings of all
tenement houses to be whitewashed once a year. If this
law were applied to the better grade of flats and apartment
houses, or even to the better tenement houses, it would
undoubtedly work great hardship and be resented by the
entire community. The Commission therefore recom-
mends that only the cellar walls and ceilings be white-
washed once a year, leaving to the Department of Health
the power and duty of requiring the walls of tenement
houses to be cleaned when necessity requires it.

SECTION 103. Roofs. The roof of every tenement house
shall be kept in good repair and so as not to leak, and all
rain water shall be so drained and conveyed therefrom as
to prevent its dripping on to the ground or causing darap-
ness in the walls, ceilings, yards or areas.

This is the present law and has been the law since 1867.
151

SECTION 104. Water supply. Every tenement house
shall have water furnished in sufficient quantity at.one or
more places on each floor occupied by or intended to be
occupied by one or more families. The owner shall pro-
vide proper and suitable tanks, pumps or other appliances
to receive and to distribute an adequate and sufficient sup-
ply of such water at each floor in the said house, at all
times of the year, during all hours of the day and night.
But a failure in the general supply of water by the city
authorities shall not be construed to be a failure on the
part of such owner, provided that proper and suitable ap-
pliances to receive and distribute such water have been
provided in said house.

This is the present law, although slight changes have
been made in the form of expression.

Section 105. Cleanliness of buildings. Every tenement
house and every part thereof shall be kept clean and free
from any accumulation of dirt, filth or garbage or other
matter inor on the same, or in the yards, courts, pass-
ages, areas or alleys connected with or belonging to the
same. The owner of every tenement house or part thereof
shall thoroughly cleanse all the rooms, passages, stairs,
floors, windows, doors, walls, ceilings, privies, water-
closets, cesspools, drains, halls, cellars, roofs and all other
parts of the said tenement house, or part of the house of
which he is the owner, to the satisfaction of the Depart-
ment of Health, and shall keep the said parts of the said
tenement house in acleanly condition at all times. No
person shall place filth, urine or fecal matter in any place
ina tenement house other than that provided for the same,
or keep filth, urine or fecal matter in his apartment or upon
his premises such length of time as to create a nuisance.

This is the present law, with the exception that the
words ‘‘ Water-closets, cellarsand roofs” have been added,
152

and that a requirement has been added that the owner
heer keep all the parts of the tenement house in a cleanly
condition.

SEcTION 106. Shafts and courts. In every tenement
house there shall be, at the bottom of every shaft and
inner court, a self-closing fireproof door giving sufficient
access to such shaft or court to enable it to be properly
cleaned out.

This is a new provision necessitated by the fact that it
is very difficult to clean out the rubbish at the bottom of
an ordinary airshaft, because a door has not been provided
in the cellar so that people may get into the shaft.

Section 107. Walls of courts and shafts. The walls of
all yard-courts, inner-courts and shafts unless built of a
light color brick or stone shall be thoroughly whitewashed
by the owner at least once in three years, or shall be
thoroughly painted alight color by him at least once in
five years; and no tenement house hereafter erected;
whether or not it has now been actually commenced, shall
be occupied until this has been done for the first time.

Thisis a new provision and is urged for two reasons,
first, chiefly to furnish alittle more light by means of the
present air shaft, and, second, as a sanitary measure.

SECTION 108. Wall Paper. No wall paper shall be placed
upon a wall or ceiling of any tenement house unless all
wall paper shall be first removed therefrom and said wall
and ceiling thoroughly cleaned.

This is the present law.
153

SECTION 109. Receptacles for ashes, garbage and refuse.
The owner of every tenement house shall provide for said
building proper and suitable conveniences or receptacles
for ashes, rubbish, garbage, refuse and other matter.

This is the present law and has been the law since 1867.
It has been slightly changed in verbiage in order to sim-
plify it and make it clearer.

SECTION 110. Prohibited uses. No horse, cow; calf,
swine, sheep or goat shall be kept in a tenement house, or
on the premises thereof, and no tenement house shall be
used for a lodging house or stable, or for the storage or
handling of rags.

The keeping of animals mentioned in this Section has
been prohibited by the laws of this State since 1867, and
the prohibition of the use of tenement houses for the pur-
pose of lodging houses or for the storage and handling of
rags has existed since 1891 and is the present law.

SEcTION. 111. Janitor or housekeeper. Whenever there
shall be more than eight families living in any tenement
house, in which the owner thereof does not reside, there
shall be a janitor, housekeeper or some other responsible
person who shall reside in said house and have charge of
the same, if the Department of Health shall so require.

This is the present law and has been the law since 1887.

SEcTION 112. Overcrowding. No room in any tene-
ment house ghall be so overcrowded that there shall be
afforded less than four hundred cubic feet of air to each
adult, and two hundred cubic feet of air to each child
154

under twelve years of age occupying such room, and no
apartment in any tenement house shall be so overcrowded
that there shall be afforded in the living rooms and bed-
rooms of said apartment less than six hundred cubic feet
of air to each individual occupying such apartment.
Nothing in this section shall be construed as conflicting
with the provisions of Section seventy-nine of this act.

The present law requires that there shall be 400 cubic
feet of air space to each adult, and 200 cubic feet of air
space to each child under twelve years of age in every
room in a tenement house. This change in the law was
made in 1895; the law prior to that time having required
600 cubic feet of air space to each individual. The present
law limits the space only to rooms where there is insuf-
ficient ventilation in the opinion of the sanitary superin-
tendent of the Department of Health. It is apparent that
a distinction should be made between rooms in new tene-
ment houses which will be adequately supplied with light
and air and rooms in existing tenement houses which are
inadequately supplied with light and air. The Commis-
sion therefore recommends that in every room in every
tenement house there shall be at least 400 cubic feet of
air to each adult and 200 cubic feet of air to each child
under 12 years of age, and that in every apartment or
suite of rooms there shall be at least 600 cubic feet of air
for each individual in the combined living and bedrooms,
and further requires that no interior room in an existing
tenement house which has not direct light and air shall
be occupied unless there is at least 600 cubic feet of air to
each individual insucharoom. There is further provision
as to overcrowding in Section 79.

SECTION 113. Space around pipes. In all tenement
houses, where plumbing or other pipes pass through floors
or partitions, the openings around such pipes shall be
sealed or made air-tight with plaster, or other incombust-
ible materials, so as to prevent the passage of air or the
spread of fire from one floor to another or from room to
room.
155

This is a new provision. It is urged for two reasons,
because the space left around pipes now serves to conduct
foul air from one room to another, and also is very dan-
gerous In case of contagious disease in a tenement house.
This space around plumbing pipes is also a frequent means
of permitting the spread of fire from one part of a build-
ing to another.

CHAPTER V.
REMEDIES.

TirLeE I. General Powers and Duties.

SECTION 121. Permit to Commence Building. No tene-
ment house shall be hereafter constructed until a written
permit to commence the construction thereof shall have
been granted by the Commissioner of Buildings for the
borough.in which said building is situated. No such per-
mit shall be issued until after examination and approval
of the plans for such building.

This and the next section are new. The Commission
believes that they furnish the simplest and most efficient
means by which the Building Department may prevent
violations of this act. The system isin force in several
foreign cities with good practical effect.

Section 122. Certificate of Compliance. No building
hereafter constructed as or altered into a tenement house
shall be occupied in whole or in part for human habita-
tion, until the issuance of a certificate signed by the
Commissioner of Buildings for the borough in which said
building is situated, that said building conforms in all re-
spects to the requirements of this Act. Such certificate
shall be issued within ten days after written application
therefor, if said building at the date of such application
shall be entitled thereto.

SEcTION 123. Unlawful Occupation. If any building
hereafter constructed as or altered into a tenement house
156

be occupied in whole or in part for human habitation in
violation of the last section, during such unlawful occu-
pation any bond or note secured by a mortgage upon said
building, or the lot upon which it stands, may be declared
due at the option of the mortgagee. No rent shall be re-
coverable by the owner or lessee of such premises for said
period, and no action or special proceeding shall be main-
tained therefor, or for possession of said premises for non-
payment of such rent. The Department of Water Supply
shall not permit water to be furnished in any such tene-
ment house, and said premises shall be deemed unfit for
human habitation, and the Department of Health shall
cause them to be vacated accordingly.

This is new.

SECTION 124. Enforcement of the Act. It shall be the
duty of the Department of Health to enforce the provi-
sions of this Act as to all tenement houses which are occu-
pied for human habitation; and it shall be the duty of the
Department of Buildings to enforce the provisions of this
Act as to all tenement houses in course of construction or
alteration.

SECTION 125. Violations. Nothing in this Act shall
be construed to abrogate or impair the powers of the
Department of Health, the Department of Buildings, or
of the Courts, to enforce the provisions of the Charter or
Building Code of the City of New York, or to prevent or
punish violations thereof.

SEcTION 126. Penalties for Violations. Every person
who shall violate or assist in the violation of any provi-
sion of this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punish-
able by imprisonment for ten days for each and every day
that such violation shall continue, or by a fine of not less
than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars if
the offence be not willful, or of two hundred and fifty
dollars if the offence be willful, and in every case of ten
157

dollars for each day after the first that such violation
shall continue, or by both such fine and imprisonment in
the discretion of the Court; provided, that the punishment
for a violation of Section one hundred and thirty-one
of this act shall be a fine of fifty dollars; and provided
further, that the penalty for encumbrance of a fire escape
by an occupant of the tenement house shall be a fine of
ten dollars, which the nearest police magistrate shall have
jurisdiction to impose.

_ Asimplification of the present system (see Charter, Sec-
tions 1262, 1313, 1822; Building Code, Section 103).

Section 127. Violation of Building Code. Any owner,
agent, architect, builder, contractor, sub-contractor, or
foreman who shall, in the construction or alteration of
any building intended to be used as a tenement house,
knowingly violate any of the provisions of the Building
Code of the City of New York, shall be guilty of a misde-
meanor.

SECTION 128. Procedure. Except as herein otherwise
specified, the procedure for the prevention of violations of
this Act, or for the vacation of premises unlawfully occu-
pied, or for other abatement of nuisance in connection
with a tenement house, shall be as set forth in Titles
I., IV., V. and VI. of Chapter XIX. of the Greater New
York Charter.

Section 129. Liens. Every fine imposed by judgment
under Section one hundred and twenty-six of this act
upon a tenement house owner shall be a lien upon the
house in relation to which the fine is imposed from the
time of the filing of a certified copy of said judgment
in the office of the clerk of the county in which said tene-
ment house is situated, subject only to taxes, assessments
and water rates and to such mortgage and mechanics’
‘liens as may exist thereon prior to such filing; and it shall
be the duty of the Department of Health upon the entry
of said judgment, to forthwith file the copy as aforesaid,
158

and such copy, upon such filing, shall be forthwith in-
dexed by the clerk in the index of mechanics’ liens.

New in its general application, but in analogy to certain
present provisions—such as Charter, Sections 1278, 1290;
Building Code, Section 150.

TITLE II. Registry of names and service of papers.

SECTION 181. Registry of Owner's Names. Every
owner of a tenement house and every lessee of the whole
house, or other person having control of a tenement
house, shall file in the Department of Health a notice con-
taining his name and address, and also a description of the
property, by street number or otherwise, as the case may
be, in such manner as will enable the Department of
Health easily to find the same; and also the number of
apartments in each house, the number of rooms in each
apartment, the number of families occupying the apart-
ments, and the trades or occupations carried on therein.
In case of a transfer of any tenement house, it shall be
the duty of the grantor or grantee of said tenement house
to file in the Department of Health a notice of such trans-
fer, stating the name of the new owner, within thirty
days after such transfer. In case of the devolution of said
property by will, it shall be the duty of the executor and
the devisee, if more than twenty-one years of age, and in
case of the devolution of such property by inheritance
without a will, it shall be the duty of the heirs, or in case
all of the heirs are under age, it shall be the duty of the
guardians of such heirs, and in case said heirs have no
guardians, it shall be the duty of the administrator of the
deceased owner of said property to file in said Department
a notice, stating the death of the deceased owner, and the
names of those who have succeeded to his interest in said
property, within thirty days after the death of the de-
cedent, in case he died intestate, and within thirty days
after the probate of his will, if he died testate.

Charter, Section 1313.
159

SECTION 132. Registry of Agent’s Name. Every owner,
agent, or lessee of a tenement house may file in the
Department of Health a notice containing the name and
address of an agent of such house for the purpose of
receiving service of process, and also a description of the
property by street number or otherwise, as the case may
be, in such manner as will enable the Department of
Health easily to find the same. The name of the owner
or lessee may be filed as agent for this purpose.

New. Compare Sections 134, 144.

SECTION 133. Service of Notices and Orders. Every
notice or order of the Department of Health in relation to
a tenement house shall be served five days before the time
for doing the thing in relation to which it shall have been
issued. The posting of a copy of such notice or order in
a conspicuous place in the tenement house, together with
the mailing of a copy thereof, on the same day that it is
posted, to each person, if any, whose name has been filed
with the Department of Health in accordance with the
provisions of Sections one hundred and thirty-one and one
hundred and thirty two of this act, at his address as there-
with filed, shall be sufficient service thereof.

Charter, Section 1313, slightly amended.

Section 134. Service of Summons. In any action
brought by the Department of Health in relation to a
tenement house for injunction, vacation of the prem-
ises, or other abatement of nuisance, or to establish
a lien thereon, it shall be sufficient service of the sum-
mons to serve the same as notices and orders are served
under the provisions of the last section; provided, that if
the address of any agent whose name and address have
160

been filed in accordance with the provisions of Section one
hundred and thirty-two of this act is in the city of New
York, then a copy of the summons shall also be delivered
at such address to a person of proper age, if upon reason-
able application admittance can be obtained and such
person found; and provided also, that personal service of
the summons upon the owner of such tenement house
shall be sufficient service thereof upon him.

New. An owner, to be assured notice of an action
quasi in rem, must file his name or that of his agent, and
there can be no delay on account of inability to procure
personal service in such an action.

SecTIon 135. Indexing Names. The names and addresses
filed in accordance with sections one hundred and thirty-
one and one hundred and thirty-two shall be indexed
under direction of the Registrar of Records of the Depart-
ment of Health, in such manner that all of those filed in
relation to each tenement house shall be together, and
readily ascertainable. The Board of Health shall provide
the Registrar with the necessary books and clerical assist-
ance for that purpose, and the expense thereof shall be
paid by the city. Said indexes shall be public records,
open to public inspection during business hours.

New.

Tirue III. Prostitution in Tenement Houses.

Section 141. Vagrancy. A woman who knowingly
resides in or commits prostitution in a house of prostitu-
tion or assignation of any description in a tenement house
or solicits any man or boy to enter therein for purposes of
prostitution shall be deemed a vagrant, and upon convic-
tion thereof shall be committed to a county jail for a
term not exceeding six months from the date of commit-
161

ment. The procedure in such case shall be the same as
that provided for other cases of vagrancy in Chapter XIV.
of the Greater New York Charter.

All the provisions of this title are new. They are in-
tended to make it worth while for all houses of prostitu-
tion to remove from where they are so dangerous to the
morals of young children. This section is recommended
by pertedel Judges of courts accustomed to deal with such
offenders.

SECTION 142. Lien. A tenement house shall be subject
to a penalty of one thousand dollars, if it or any part of it
shall be used for the purpose of a house of prostitution or
assignation of any description, with the permission of the
owner thereof, or his agent, and said penalty shall be a
lien upon the house and the lot upon which the house is
situated.

SECTION 143. Permission of Lessee. If a tenement
house, or any part thereof, shall be used for the purpose
of a house of prostitution or assignation of any description
with the permission of the lessee of the whole of said tene-
ment house, or his agent, the lease shall be terminable at
the election of the lessor.

SecTIon 144. Permission of Owner. A tenement house
shall be deemed to have been used for the purpose speci-
fied in the last two sections with the permission of the
owner and lessee thereof, if summary proceedings for the
removal of the tenants of said tenement house, or of so
much thereof as is unlawfully used, shall not have been
commenced within five days after notice of such unlawful
use, served by the Department of Health in the manner
prescribed by Section one hundred and thirty-three of this
act.

SEcTION 145. Rules of Evidence. In a_ prosecution
against an owner or agent of a tenement house under Sec-
tion three hundred and twenty-two of the Penal Code, or
162

in an action to establish a lien under Section one hundred
and forty-two of this act, the general neputation of the
premises in the neighborhood shall be competent evi-
dence, but shall not be sufficient to support a judgment
without corroborative evidence, and it shall be presumed
that their use was with the permission of the owner and
lessee; provided, that such presumption may be rebutted
by evidence.

SECTION 146. Title of Action and Parties. Said action
shall be brought against the tenement house as defendant.
Said house may be described in the title of the action by
its street number, or in any other method sufficiently pre-
cise to secure identification. The property shall be de-
scribed in the complaint. The plaintiff shall be the De-
partment of Health.

Section 147. Jurisdiction and Procedure. Said action
shall be brought in the Supreme Court in the county in
which the property is situated. At or before the com-
mencement of the action the complaint shall be filed in
the office of the clerk of the county, together with a
notice of the pendency of the action, containing the names
of the parties, the object of the action and a brief descrip-
tion of the property affected thereby. Said notice shall
be immediately recorded by the clerk in accordance with
the provisions of Section sixteen hundred and seventy-two
of the Code of Civil Procedure. The owner or lessee of
said building, or both, may appear in said action and
answer or demur to the complaint within twenty‘ days
after its service. The issues so raised, if any, shall be
tried at the Special Term, and the action shall be preferred
like other actions in which the Department of Health is a
party.

SECTION 148. Judgment. The judgment in such action,
if in favor of the plaintiff, shall establish the penalty sued
for as a lien upon said premises, subject only to taxes, as-
sessments and water rates, and to such mortgage and
mechanics’ liens as may exist thereon prior to the filing of
the notice of pendency of the action.
163

SECTION 149. Sale of Property. At any time after the
entry of any judgment establishing a lien upon tenement
property the Department of Health, if there be no stay
pending appeal, may apply to the Court for leave to sell
such property. Upon such application the Court, if it
deem advisable, may order such property to be sold at
public auction, subject to taxes, assessments and water
rates, and to such mortgage and mechanics’ liens as afore-
said. The deed to the purchaser shall be made by the
Department of Health. The Justices of the Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court of the First and Second
Departments may establish rules of practice, which shall
be followed by the Department of Health in the conduct
of said sales in said Departments respectively.

A sale of the property will only be proper when it is
unencumbered, or so little encumbered as to assure a bid
high enough to cover the city’s lien.

SECTION 150. Receivership. Whenever the lien or
liens upon a tenement property, established by judgment,
shall amount to one thousand dollars or over, if there be
no stay pending appeal, the Department of Health shall
appoint a receiver of the rents and profits of said property.
Said receiver shall give security for the performance of his
duties in the manner and form fixed by said Department.
He shall have the powers and duties of a receiver of rents
and profits of real estate appointed by the Supreme Court;
provided, that the Corporation Counsel shall act as his
counsel and that he shall not be allowed any expendi-
ture for counsel fees, and provided, that his commissions
shall be ten per cent. of his collections, which sum shall
be full compensation for his services and those of any agent
or agents whom he may employ. Said receivership shall
continue until the amount of said liens, with interest
thereon at the rate of six per cent., and of said commis-
sions, have been fully paid; provided, that nothing in this
section shall be construed to prevent any prior lienor from
164

applying to the Court in a proper case for a receiver of
the property.

The plan of enforcing a lien upon rents is not new
(Charter, Sections 1176, 1276, 1297). This section provides
a more efficient method of practical enforcement.

SEcTION 151. Cancellation of notice of pendency of the
action. If an action to establish a lien upon tenement
property terminate otherwise than in a judgment establish-
ing such a lien, or if said judgment be fully paid, said
notice may be cancelled in the manner prescribed by Sec-
tion one thousand six hundred and seventy-four of the
Code of Civil Procedure.

CHAPTER VI.
GENERAL PROVISIONS.

SECTION 161. Repeal. Sections one thousand three hun-
dred and four, one thousand three hundred and five, one
thousand three hundred and six, one thousand three hun-
dred and seven, one thousand three hundred and eight,
one thousand three hundred and nine, one thousand three
hundred and ten, one thousand three hundred and eleven,
one thousand three hundred and twelve, one thousand
three hundred and thirteen, one thousand three hundred
and seventeen, one thousand three hundred and eighteen,
one thousand three hundred and nineteen, one thousand
three hundred and twenty, one thousand three hundred
and twenty-one, one thousand three hundred and twenty-
two and one thousand three hundred and twenty-three of
the Greater New York Charter, in so far as they relate to
tenement houses, are hereby repealed.

SECTION 162. Building Regulations. Except as herein
otherwise specified, every tenement house shall be con-
structed and maintained in conformity with the existing
165

law, but no ordinance, regulation or ruling of any muni-

cipal authority shall modify or dispense with any provision
of this act.

SECTION 163. Penalties. All penalties collected under
this act shall be paid into the treasury of the City of New
York.

SECTION 164. Time for Compliance. Allalterations hereby
required upon now existing tenement houses shall be made
within one year hereafter, or at such earlier period as may
be fixed by the Department of Buildings, as to the require-
ments of Chapter IT., or by the Department of Health, as
to the other requirements of this act.

SEcTION 165. When to take effect. This act shall take
effect immediately; provided, that Sections one hundred
and thirty-four and one hundred and forty-four shall not
take effect until three months after the passage thereof.
166

AN ACT to amend Chapter three hundred and seventy-
eight of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-
seven, entitled “An act to unite into one munici-
pality, under the corporate name of The City of
New York, the various communities lying in and
about New York harbor, including the city and
county of New York, the city of Brooklyn, and
the county of Kings, the county of Richmond
and part of the’ county of Queens, and to provide
for the government thereof,’’ by creating a tene-
ment house department, and defining its powers
and duties.

Lhe People of the State of New York, represented in
Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SEcTion 1. Chapter three hundred and seventy-eight of
the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven is hereby
amended by inserting therein a new chapter, to be known
as Chapter XIXa, and to read as follows:

®

CHAPTER XIXa.
TENEMENT HOUSE DEPARTMENT.

TitLe 1. Organization of department; officers and em-
ployees.

2. Powers and duties of department.
3. Records and reports; miscellaneous provisions.

TITLE 1.

ORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENT; BUREAUS; OFFICERS AND
EMPLOYEES.

Sc. 1340. Department created; tenement house commis-
sioner.
1341. Deputy commissioner.
167

1342. Bureaus; division of department for Brook-
lyn, Queens and Richmond.

1343. Officers and employees.

1344. Duties of Bureaus.

1344a. Offices and expenses.

1344b. Seal.

1344c. Annual report.

1344d. Publication of statistics and other data.

1344e. Uniforms and badges.

1344f. Reports of inspectors.

1344g. Proofs, affidavits and oaths.

1244h. Complaint book.

13443. Attorneys.

Department created; tenement house commissioners.

§ 1340. In addition to the departments enumerated in
section ninety-six of this charter, there is hereby created
a tenement house department. The head of such de-
partment shall be called the tenement house commissioner.
He shall be appointed by the mayor, and shall hold office
subject to removal by the mayor, as provided in chapter
four of this charter. He shall receive an annual salary of
seven thousand and five hundred dollars, and shall exe-
cute an official bond in the sum of twenty thousand dollars,
conditioned on the faithful performance of his duties and
a faithful and accurate disbursement and accounting of all
moneys received by him in his official capacity.

Deputy Commissioner.

1341. The tenement house commissioner shall appoint,
and may remove, one or more deputy tenement house
commissioners, who shall receive annual salaries of not
more than five thousand dollars each. During the dis-
ability, or absence from the city, of the commissioner,
such deputy shall perform the duties and possess the pow-
ers of such commissioner.

Bureaus; division of department for Brooklyn, Queens
and Richmond.

1342. There shall be in the tenement house department,
(1) A new building bureau; (2) An inspection bureau; (3)
168

A bureau of records; and such other bureaus as the com-
missioner may deem necessary.

A separate division of the department may be estab-
lished in the borough of Brooklyn, with jurisdiction over
tenement houses in the borough of Brooklyn, and also in
the discretion of the commissioner, in the boroughs of
Queens or Richmond, or both. The commissioner may de-
signate the deputy commissioner or some other officer of
the department as the executive head of such division,
who shall perform such duties and possess such powers as
may be delegated to him by the commissioner. A branch
of each of the bureaus above specified may be established
in such division.

Officers and employees.

1343. The tenement house commissioner shall appoint,
and may remove, all registrars, examiners, inspectors,
clerks and employees employed in the tenement house de-
partment, and fix the salaries of such officers and em-
ployees.

In the new building bureau there shall be not less than
three plan examiners and not less than sixteen inspectors
of light and ventilation. In the inspection bureau theré
shall be not less than one hundred and ninety inspectors,
including such persons as may be detailed by the police
board for service in the tenement house department.
The commissioner shall appoint a chief inspector ‘and
deputy chief inspector over such bureau. In the other
bureaus there shall be such registrars, clerks and em-
ployees as are necessary to perform the duties thereof.

All such officers and employees shall be subject to the
supervision and control of the commissioner, and shall
perform such duties as are assigned by him. Such com-
missioner may make regulations governing each such
bureau, and branch thereof, not inconsistent with law.

Duties of bureaus.

1344. The new building bureau shall file, record and ex-
amine plans and specifications for the light and ventilation
169

of tenement houses hereafter altered or erected, and of
buildings to be altered or reconstructed for use as tene-
ment houses. It shall inspect all such houses and build-
ings in the course of construction or alteration and record
all violations of the New York Tenement House Act, in
respect thereto.

The inspection bureau shall inspect all completed tene-
ment houses, and record all violations of the tenement
house laws and ordinances. The commissioner shall pre-
scribe the duties of the inspectors connected with such
bureau, and may assign them to such part of the city as
he may deem best.

The bureau of records shall contain records of every ten-
ement house in the city to be kept in the manner and form
prescribed by the commissioner.

Such other bureaus as may be organized by the commis-
sioner shall perform the duties prescribed by him, and
he may assign thereto such inspectors and officers as may
be necessary.

Offices and expenses.

1344a. The commissioner may provide offices for the use
of the department, its bureaus and the branches thereof.
Such commissioner may, subject to the other provisions of
this charter, make such incidental and additional expendi-
tures, having due regard to economy, as the purposes and
provisions of this chapter may require. He may provide
that the failure of an inspector, officer or employee of the
department to properly perform his duty shall cause a for-
feiture of the whole or any part of the salary or compen-
sation of such inspector, officer or employee.

Seal.

1344b. The commissioner may design and adopt a seal
for the department and cause the same to be used in the
authentication of the orders and proceedings of the depart-
ment, and for such other purposes as he may prescribe.
The courts shall take judicial notice of such seal, and
of the signature of the commissioner and deputy commis-
sioner of such department.
170

Annual report.

1344c. The commissioner shall make an annual report
at some time prior to the first day of March of each year
to the Mayor of the city of New York of all the operations
of his department for the year ending on the preceding
31st day of December. Such report shall, if ordered by
the Mayor, be published in the city record, and shall also
be published in book form for public information. The
Mayor may, at any time, call for a fuller report, or for
a report upon any portion of the work of said depart-
ment, whenever he deems it for the public good so to do.

Publication of statistics and other data.

1344d. The commissioner may provide for the publicity
of the papers, files, reports, records and the proceedings of
his department, whenever he deems it necessary for the
public good and public service. There shall be kept in
such department statistics of all tenement houses, which
shall be contained in the annual report of such depart-
ment.

Uniforms and badges.

1344e. The commissioner may provide or designate a
suitable uniform to be worn by inspectors. He may also*
provide a badge of metal, with a suitable inscription
thereon, and require it to be worn by the inspectors and
officers of the department.

Reports of inspectors.

1344f. Each of such inspectors shall report in writing, at
least once in each week, to the commissioner. The form,
manner and scope of such reports shall be prescribed by
the commissioner. Such reports shall be filed in the de-
partment.

Proofs, affidavits and oaths.

1344g. Proofs, affidavits and examinations as to any
matter arising in connection with the performance of any
of the duties of the tenement house department may be
taken by or before the tenement house commissioner, or
171

his deputy, or such other person as he may designate; and
such commissioner, deputy or other person may adminis-
ter oaths in connection therewith.

Complaint book.

1344h. The commissioner shall cause to be kept in his
department a general complaint book, or several such
hooks, in which may be entered by any person any com-
plaint in reference to tenement houses, with the name
and residence of the complainant, the name of the person
complained of, the date of the entry of the complaint and
suggestions of any proper remedy. Such book shall be
open to public examination during the office hours of the
department, subject to such regulations as the commis-
sioner may prescribe. The tenement house commissioner
shall cause the facts in regard to all complaints to be
investigated.

Attorneys.

1344i. The corporation counsel shall assign to such de-
partment such assistant counsel as may be needful, in the
manner provided by chapter seven of this charter.

TITLE 2.

POWERS AND DUTIES OF DEPARTMENT.

Src. 1344j. General powers and duties.

1344k. Transfer of powers of other departments.

13441. Approval of plans and specifications for light
and ventilation.

1344m. Inspection of tenement houses in course of
construction.

1344n. Certificate to owner of tenement house
hereafter erected or altered.

13440. Inspection of completed tenement houses.

1344p. Injunctions when to be granted against the
department.

1344q. Power of attorney for the department.

1344r. No personal liability.

1344s. Right of entry of officers of department.
172

1344t. Punishment for false returns and deceptive
reports.

1344u. Falsely personating an officer. .

1344v. Application of provisions of chapter nine-
teen.

General powers and dutzes.

1344j. All the rights and powers possessed by the health
department of the city of New York with respect to the
sanitary inspection of tenement houses are hereby con-
ferred upon the tenement house department; and the tene-
ment house department is hereby charged with the duty
of enforcing the New York Tenement House Act. Noth-
ing herein contained shall abrogate or impair the existing
powers of the department of health of the city of New
York. The tenement house department shall have the
powers and shall perform the duties specified in this
chapter.

Transfer of powers of other departments.

1844k. Such rights, powers and duties as are now pos-
sessed by the fire department and police department of the
city of New York with respect to the prevention of in-
cumbrance or obstruction of fire escapes on tenement
houses, are hereby transferred to and conferred upon the
tenement house department. All rights, powers and
duties now possessed by the department of buildings in
the city of New York with respect to the light and venti-
lation of tenement houses and with respect to the equip-
ment of completed tenement houses with fire escapes, are
transferred to and conferred upon the tenement house de-
partment.

Approval of plans and specifications for light and ventila-
tion. ;

13441. Before the construction or alteration of a tene-

ment house, or the alteration or conversion of a building

for use as a tenement house, is commenced, the owner, or

his agent or architect, shall submit to the tenement house

department a detailed statement in writing, verified by
173

the person making the same, of the specifiations for the
light and ventilation of such tenement house or building,
upon a blank or form to be furnished by such department,
and also a full and complete copy of the plans of such
work. Such statement shall give in full the name and
residence, by street and number, of the owner or owners
of such tenement house or building. If such construction,
alteration, or conversion, is proposed to be made by any
other person than the owner of the land in fee, such state-
ment shall contain the full name and residence, by street
and number, not only of the owner of the land, but of
every person interested in such tenement house, either as
owner, lessee or in any representative capacity. Thestate-
ments herein provided for may be made by the owner, or
the person who proposes to make the construction, altera-
tion or conversion, or by his agent or architect. No per-
son, however, shall be recognized as the agent of the
owner, unless he shall file with the tenement house depart-
ment a written instrument, signed by such owner, desig-
nating him as such agent. Such specifications, plans and
statements shall be filed in the office of the tenement house
department and shall be deemed public records, but nosuch
specifications, plans or statements shall be removed from
said department, or copied.

The commissioner shall cause all such plans and speci-
fications to be examined. If such plans and specifications
conform to the provisions of the New York Tenement
House Act, they shall be approved by such commissioner,
and a written certificate to that effect shall be issued to the
person submitting the same. The Commissioner may,
from time to time, approve changes in any plans and spe-
cifications previously approved by him, provided the plans
and specifications when so changed shall be in conformity
with law.

The construction, alteration or conversion of such
tenement house or building, or any part thereof, shall not
be commenced until the filing of such specifications, plans
and statements, and the approval thereof by the tenement
house commissioner, as above provided.
174

No permit shall be granted and no plan approved by the
department of buildings of the city of New York for
the construction or alteration of a tenement house, or for
the alteration or conversion of any building for use asa
tenement house, until there has been flled in such depart-
ment a certificate of the tenement house commissioner,
issued as above provided.

Inspection of tenement houses in course of construction.

1344m. The commissioner shall cause an inspection and
examination to be made of all tenement houses in the
course of construction or alteration, and also of all build-
ings in course of alteration or conversion for use as tene-
ment houses, for the purpose of ascertaining whether
such tenement houses or buildings are being constructed,
altered or converted in conformity with the law, and the
plans and specifications on file in the office of the depart-
ment, and approved by the commissioner.

Certificate to owner of tenement house hereafter erected or
altered.

1344n. Within ten days after notice from the owner
of a tenement house or building constructed, altered or
converted, the tenement house commissioner shall cause,
an inspection thereof to be made, and, if it is found that
said tenement house or building has been constructed,
altered or converted in conformity with law in respect to
the light and ventilation of tenement houses, and with
the plans and specifications approved by the tenement
house commissioner, such commissioner shall in such
case, and in no other, cause a written certificate to be
issued to the owner of such tenement house or building to
the effect that such tenement house or building has been °
so constructed, altered or converted. No such tenement
house or building shall be used or occupied as a tene-
ment house until such certificate has been issued by such
commissioner. No permit shall be granted by the depart-
ment of water supply to turn on the water in any such
tenement house, unless such certificate of the tenement
house commissioner has been issued.
175

Inspection of completed tenement houses.

13440. Except as hereinafter otherwise provided, the
tenement house commissioner shall cause an inspection
of every completed tenement house in the city to be made
at least once in each month. Such inspection shall in-
clude examination of cellars, halls, rooms, water-closets,
privies, plumbing, yards, areas, fire escapes, roof, shafts,
courts, tanks and all other parts of such tenement houses
and the premises connected therewith. In tenement
houses where the average rental of the apartments
therein is twenty-five dollars a month or more, such in-
spection may be made less often than once a month as
above provided, in the discretion of the tenement house
commissioner. The tenement house commissioner shall
prescribe the manner in which such inspections shall be
made.

The inspectors shallimmediately report to the tenement
house department all violations of the New York Tene-
ment House Act, and the tenement house commissioner
shall issue such orders as he may deem necessary requiring
the removal of the defect or a cessation of the act which
is in violation of such law.

Injunctions, when to be granted against the department.

1344p. No preliminary injunction shall be granted
against the tenement house department or its officers ex-
cept by the supreme court, at a special term thereof, after
service of at least five days’ notice of the motion for such
injunction, together with copies of the papers upon which
the motion for such injunction is to be made. Whenever
such department shall seek any provisional remedy or
shall prosecute an appeal, it shall not be necessary, before
obtaining or prosecuting the same, to give an undertak-
ing.

Power of attorney for the department.

1344q. The counsel assigned by the corporation counsel
to the tenement house department shall sue for and
collect all penalties, and take charge of and conduct
176

all legal proceedings imposed or provided by this chapter,
or by the New York Tenement’ House Act, and all other
tenement house laws, regulations and ordinances. All
suits or proceedings instituted for the enforcement of the
several provisions of this chapter, or for the recovery of
penalties imposed by the New York Tenement House
Act, shall be brought in the name of the tenement house
department of the city of New York, by such counsel.
The commissioner shall cause all notices of violations to
be submitted to such counsel and it shall be his duty to
prosecute the same. The penalties recovered shall be
paid to such counsel. He shall on the first of each month
render to the commissioner an itemized statement of all
moneys collected by him and pay over the same to the
tenement house commissioner. He shall at the same
time render a statement of the necessary disbursements
incurred or paid in the prosecution of the actions and pro-
ceedings instituted by him. The tenement house com-
missioner shall pay monthly the amount of such moneys
so collected to the comptroller of the city of New York.

No personal liability.

1344r. An officer or employee of the tenement house
department shall not be liable for acts done by him,*in
good faith, in the performance of his official duties, pur-
suant to the direction of the commissioner or the rules
and regulations of the department. Any person whose
property has been unjustly or illegally destroyed or
injured pursuant to the order, regulation or ordinance of
such tenement house department, or its officers or em-
ployees, for which no personal liability exists as aforesaid,
may maintain a proper action against the city for the re-
covery of the proper compensation or damage. Every
such suit shall be brought within six months after the
cause of action arose, and the recovery shall be limited to
the damages suffered.

Right of entry of officers of department.

1344s. The tenement house commissioner and _ his
deputy and all inspectors of the tenement house depart-
177

ment and such other persons as are authorized by the
commissioner, may without fee or hindrance enter, ex-
amine and survey all premises, grounds, erections, struc-
tures, apartments, buildings and every part thereof in the
city, and all cellars and passages of every sort and inspect
the safety and sanitary condition, and make plans, draw-
ings and descriptions thereof, according to the regulations
of the department. The owner or his agent or representa-
tive and the lessee or occupant of every tenement house or
part thereof, and every person having the care and man-
agement thereof, shall at all times when required by any
of such officers or persons give them free access to such
house and every part thereof.

Punishment for false returns and deceptive reports.

1344t. Any inspector, officer or employee of such tene-
ment house department who shall knowingly make thereto
a false or deceptive report or statement in connection with
his duties, or shall accept or receive any bribe or other
compensation as a condition of or an inducement for not
faithfully discovering or fully reporting or otherwise act-
ing in accordance with his duty in any respect, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable by imprisonment
for not more than one year and by a fine of not more than
five hundred dollars. If such officer, inspector or employee
be convicted of such offense, he shall forfeit his office, and
in addition all compensation due or to become due from
such department.

Falsely personating an officer.

1344u. If any person, not an officer, inspector or em-
ployee of such department or acting under the authority
thereof, falsely represents himself as such, or if any such
person shall use, wear or display, without authority, any
shield or other insignia or emblem such as is worn by
such an officer, inspector or employee, he shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor.
178

Application of provisions of chapter nineteen.
1344v. The provisions of chapter nineteen of this char-
ter, relative to the department of health, which provide:

1. For the repair of buildings, as contained in Section
1171 of such chapter.

2. For proceedings relative to dangerous and improperly
constructed buildings, as contained in Section 1176 thereof.

3. For assistance and co-operation of the police depart-
ment, as contained in Section 1202 thereof.

4. Punishment for violations of orders and the service
of such orders, as contained in Sections 1222 and 1224
thereof.

5. For legal proceedings and punishment for disobedience
of orders and ordinances, as contained in title four thereof.

6. For reimbursements and lien of expenses incurred by
such department in the execution of its orders as con-
tained in title five thereof.

7. For suits for the abatement or removal of nuisances,
and for proceedings, and the powers and duties of such
department in respect to such nuisances, as contained in
title six thereof; and the definition of the word ‘‘ nuisance”
and other matters in respect thereto, as contained in see-
tion 1229 thereof, shall apply to the supervision and regu-
lation of tenement houses by the tenement house depart-
ment, its officers, agents and employees, unless otherwise
specified in, orinconsistent with, the provisions of this chap-
ter. All the provisions of the sections and titles above
specified shall be so applicable to such tenement house de-
partment, its. officers, agents and employees.

TITLE 3.

RECORDS AND REPORTS; MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

Sec. 13844w. Records in department.
1344x. Reports from different institutions and de-
partments.
1344y. Other reports to the department.
179

1344z. Transfer of property, etc., from other de-
partments.

1344aa. Co-operation of other departments.

1344bb. Definitions.

1344cc. Saving clause.

1344dd. Time when this act to take effect.

Records in department.

1344w. The tenement house commissioner shall pro-
vide a system for keeping the records of tenement houses
by card catalogue and street number, or otherwise. Such
records shall include:

(1.) A diagram of each tenement house showing the
shape of the building, its width and depth, also the meas-
urements of the unoccupied area, showing shafts, courts,
yards and other open spaces. Such diagram shall include
a diagram of the second or typical floor of the building,
showing the sizes and arrangement of the rooms, and all
doors, stairs, windows, halls and partitions.

(2.) A statement of the date or the approximate date
when the building was erected.

(3.) The deaths occurring in the tenement house during
each year and the annual death rate therein. Such state-
ment shall show whether such deaths were of adults or
children, and, if occasioned by tuberculosis, typhoid fever,
diphtheria, scarlet fever, smallpox, measles, or by any
other contagious or infectious disease, it shall state the
disease causing death.

(4.) The cases of sickness occurring in the tenement
house and the nature of the disease. Such records shall
also show whether such cases of sickness were of children
or adults.

(5.) The arrests of persons residing in the tenement
house.

Reports from different institutions and depariments.

1344x. All dispensaries and hospitals in the city of New
York shall make weekly statements to the tenement
house department as to the cases of sickness received in
180

such hospital or treated in such dispensary from each ten-
ement house. Such statement shall show the location of
the tenement house, by street and number, from which the
case was received, and the nature of the sickness treated,
whether the patient was an adult or child and the date of
the treatment.

The police department of the city of New York shall fur-
nish to the tenement house department a weekly state-
ment of the number of arrests of persons living in tene-
ment houses, which shall show the location of the tenement
house, by street and number, the offense with which the
person is charged, the age and name of the offender, and
such other information as the tenement house department
may require. The tenement house commissioner shall
prescribe and furnish blank forms for making such state-
ments.

Other reports to the department.

1344y. Such department may require reports and infor-
mation of such facts relative to the condition of persons
residing in tenement houses, as the commissioner may
deem to be useful in carrying out the purposes of this chap-
ter and the tenement house laws, regulations and ordi-
nances, from all dispensaries, hospitals, charitable or benev-
olent societies, infirmaries, prisons and schools, and from
the managers, principals and officers thereof; the managers,
principals and officers of such institutions shall promptly
give such information and make such reports, verbal or in
writing, as may be required by the commissioner.

Transfer of property, etc., from other departments.

1844z. Upon the organization of the tenement house
department hereby created, and upon notice thereof from
the tenement house commissioner to the department of
health and department of buildings, such books, papers,
records, and other matters belonging to, or in the custody
of, such departments of health or buildings, and used in
such departments in connection with tenement houses, ag
the tenement house commissioner may require for carry-
181

ing out the provisions of this chapter and the enforce-
ment of the tenement house laws, regulations and ordi-
nances, shall be transferred by such department of health
and department of buildings to the tenement house depart-
ment hereby created.

Co-operation of other departments.

1844aa. It shall be the duty of all city departments at
all times, when requested so to do, to co-operate with the
tenement house department and to furnish such depart-
ment with such information, reports and assistance as
may be required.

Details of men to assist tenement house department.

1844bb. The police board, upon the requisition of the
tenement house commissioner, shall detail to the service
of said tenement house department for the purpose of the
enforcement of the acts relating to tenement and lodging
houses not more than one hundred suitable officers
and men of experience of at least five years’ service
in the police force, provided that the tenement house
department shall pay monthly to the police department
a sum equal to the pay of all officers and men so detailed.
These officers and men shall belong to the sanitary com-
pany of police, shall report to the tenement house com-
missioner. The tenement housecommissioner may report
back to the police department for punishment any mem-
ber of said company guilty of any breach of order or dis-
cipline, or of neglecting his duty, and thereupon the police
board shall detail another officer or man in his place, and
the discipline of the said members of the sanitary com-
pany shall be in the jurisdiction of the police department,
but at any time the tenement house commissioner may
object to any member of said sanitary company on the
ground of inefficiency, and thereupon another officer or
man shall be detailed in his place.

Definitions.
1844cc. The term ‘‘department,” when used in this
chapter, shall mean the tenement house department. The
182

term ‘‘ commissioner,” when used in this chapter, shall
mean the tenement house commissioner. The term “‘ ten-
ement house,” when used in this chapter, shall be deemed
to refer to a tenement house, which is subject to the pro-
visions of the New York Tenement House Act, and de-
fined therein.

Saving Clause.

1344dd. Nothing in this chapter shall affect or in any
way impair any act done or right accruing, accrued or
acquired, or liability, penalty, forfeiture or punishment
incurred prior to the time this chapter takes effect, but
the same may be asserted, enforced, prosecuted or in-
flicted, as fully and to the same extent as if the tenement
house department had not been created and the powers
and duties of the department of health, the department of
buildings, and the police department, in respect to tene-
ment houses and the laws, rules and ordinances relating
thereto had not been transferred to such tenement house
department, as provided in this chapter. All actions and
proceedings, civil or criminal, commenced under or by
virtue of statutes creating and conferring powers and im-
posing duties on such department of health, department
of buildings, and police department, in respect to tene-
ment houses and for the enforcement of laws, rules and or-
dinances relative thereto, and pending immediately prior
to the taking effect of this chapter, may be prosecuted
and defended to final effect by the tenement house depart-
ment in the same manner as they might by such depart-
ment of health, department of buildings or police depart-
ment, if this chapter had not been passed. All such ac-
tions and proceedings shall be prosecuted and defended in
the name of the tenement house department.

1344ee. This act shall take effect on the first day of
January, 1902.
183

AN ACT to amend chapter three hundred and seventy-
eight of the laws of eighteen hundred and ninety-
seven, entitled “‘ An Act to unite into one munici-
pality under the corporate name of The City: of
New York, the various communities lying in and
about New York harbor, including the city and
county of New York, the city of Brooklyn and the
county of Kings, the county of Richmond and part
of the county of Queens, and to provide for the
government thereof.”

The People of the State of New York, represented in
Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. Section thirteen hundred and fourteen of
chapter three hundred and seventy-eight of the laws of
eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, is hereby amended to
read as follows:

Inspection; Officers to have access.

§ 1814. It shall be the duty of the board of health to
cause a careful inspection to be made of every tenement
and lodging at least twice in each year until the first of
January, nineteen hundred and two. And whenever the
board of health has made any order concerning a tenement
or lodging house it shall cause a reinspection to be made
of the same within six days after it has been in-
formed that the order has been served. The keeper of
any lodging house and the owner, agent of the owner,
lessee or occupant of any tenement-house, and every
other person having the care and management thereof,
shall, at all times, when required by any officer of the de-
partment of health, or by any officer upon whom any duty
is conferred by this title, give him free access to such
house, and to every part thereof. The owner or keeper
of any lodging-house, and the owner, agent of the owner

 
184

and the lessee of any tenement-house or part thereof,
shall, whenever any person in such house is sick of fever,
or of any infectious, pestilential or contagious disease, and
information thereof has been given to such owner, keeper,
agent or lessee, give immediate notice thereof to the board
of health, or to some officer of the same, and thereupon
said board shall cause the same to be immediately cleansed
or disinfected, at the expense of the owner, in such man-
ner as if may deem necessary and effectual, and it may
also cause the blankets, bedding and bed-clothes used by
any such sick person to be thoroughly cleansed, scoured
and fumigated, or, in extreme cases, to be destroyed.

SEcTION 2. Section thirteen hundred and twenty-four of
said act is hereby amended to read as follows:

Sanitary company of police.

§ 1324. The board of health shall make requisitions upon
the police board for the detail of at least twenty-five
{fifty]J and not more than fifty [one hundred] suitable
officers and men of at least five years’ service in the
police force, who shall be selected for their peculiar fit-
ness for the enforcement of the provisions of the sani-
tary code [and the acts relating to tenement and lodg-
ing-houses.] These officers and men shall be detailed
to such service by the police board, and the depart-
ment of health shall pay to the police department
monthly, the amount of the pay of the officers and men
so detailed, who shall belong to the sanitary company of
the police and shall report to the board of health. [At
least thirty of the officers and men so detailed shall
be employed exclusively in the enforcement of the
laws relating to tenement and lodging houses.] The
board of health may report back to the police board for
punishment, any member of said company guilty of any
breach of orders or discipline, or of neglecting his duty,
and thereupon the police board shall detail another officer
or man in his place, and the discipline of the said members
of the sanitary company shall be in the jurisdiction of the
police department; but at any time the board of health may
185

object to the efficiency of any member of said sanitary
company and thereupon another officer or man shall be
detailed in his place.

Section 8. Section two hundred and thirty of said act
is hereby amended by omitting subdivision ninth thereof.
ECNinth—The sum of ten thousand dollars to the credit of
the department of health, to be known as the tenement
house fund, to be expended by the board of health.]

SEcTION 4. This act shall go into effect on January first,
nineteen hundred and two.

[ovER.}
186

AN ACT to amend the Public Health Law in relation
to tenement houses.

The People of the State of New York represented in
Senate and Assembly do enact as follows:

Src. 1. Article one of the Public Health Law is hereby
amended by adding thereto an additional section to be
known as Sec. 13, and to read as follows:

Src. 13. The board shall have power to examine into
the enforcement of the laws relating to tenement houses
in any city of the first class. Whenever required by the
governor, it shall make such an examination and shall
report the results thereof to the governor within the time
prescribed by him therefor.

Sec. 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

[65757]
 
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